A Most Unlikely Attraction
by jujubeeza
Summary: Naruto and Jiraiya are looking for Tsunade so she can heal Kakashi and Sasuke, and become the fifth hokage. Tsunade isn't traveling alone. She has an apprentice with her. The apprentices are drawn to each other. Naruto X Shizune.
1. Chapter 1

Hello everyone. This will be my first attempt at a fanfiction. I intend for it to be a NarutoxShizune pairing. I absolutely adore Shizune, and detest how minor of a character she is. I don't think the age gap is that significant, and if it is, consider this story to be AU, as I intend for her to be 19 when Naruto's 12. Well, it's AU anyways seeing how those two are going to be paired.

Of the almost 200,000 Naruto stories on the site, less than 50 are of this pairing, which deeply saddened me. I think some famous author (I don't remember who) said something along the lines of, "If you want to read a story that doesn't exist, you have to write it yourself." I've read just about all of the NarutoxShizune stories on the site, and they were good and all, but I needed more.

Constructive criticism and positive reviews are most welcome. Needless flaming is equally unwelcome.

Thanks for reading my rant, now on with the story.

Summary: Naruto and Jiraiya are in the middle of their search for the famed slug sannin, Senju Tsunade. They just got word from the local bar that Tsunade passed through there yesterday. Eager to find her at last, Naruto and Jiraiya get their move on.

**Disclaimer: I do not hold the legal rights to Naruto. That honor belongs to Kishimoto.**

* * *

While the older man radiated patience and a content to simply take in everything around him as he was walking, the young boy walking alongside him had not yet learned the virtue, and made it painfully known to his companion. If his fidgeting around and pulling out portions of his own hair was any indication.

"Are we _there_ yet, ero-sennin?" asked a short 12 year old blond wearing an orange jumpsuit of all things.

"Don't call me that you little brat," replied the self-declared super pervert. "We'll be there soon enough. Like I told you two minutes ago."

This did not placate the young blond.

"But ero-sennin, I'm hungry. I'm tired. I'm thirsty. I want to learn some awesome jutsus. I want to go on a date with Sakura-chan. I want to--"

"ENOUGH!" yelled Jiraiya, throwing his hands in the air. "I give up. You want something to do, Naruto?"

Naruto thought his prayers had been answered. Seeing how they weren't close to the next town yet, and Sakura-chan wasn't with them, that meant one thing. "OH BOY! Are you going to teach me another awesome jutsu!"

Jiraiya frowned at this. "Naruto, I'm already teaching you the rasengan. That's a pretty darn awesome jutsu, even for me. In fact, why aren't you practicing that right now?"

Naruto stuck his tongue out at Jiraiya and proceeded to blow raspberries. Upon stopping, he replied, "But we're walking, ero-sennin. I can't concentrate hard enough to focus the rasengan and walk at the same time."

Jiraiya facepalmed. Literally. If the brat couldn't even do that much, what was he supposed to do? Believing himself to be out of options, Jiraiya checked every pocket he had. Stupid pocket were full of kunai and shuriken, along with a couple scrolls, but nothing that would shut up the eternal headache that was his traveling companion. Until he got to the back pocket of his pants, where the culmination of years of research was in written form.

Jiraiya inwardly was chuckling to himself. "Oh man, I should let him read this...it'll shut him up good."

"Ok brat. No, I'm not going to teach you a new jutsu." Naruto's entire posture dropped down at this. "But do not be dismayed! For I have in my possession a marvelous and timeless piece of literature! Behold!" Jiraiya took out the first book of the famed Icha Icha series.

Naruto was not impressed. "What the heck is that ero-sennin?"

Jiraiya just grinned. "Read the first two chapters of this, brat. In fact, read them without once asking me if we're almost there yet. You do that, and I'll teach you a new jutsu, though it'll be after you learn the rasengan of course. Got it?" Jiraiya was praying this would work.

Naruto was jumping and laughing in a field of flowers in his head. 'Just read two chapters from a book? Cakewalk! Ero-sennin better teach me something awesome!'

"Ok ero-sennin. You got it. But make sure that jutsu you teach me is really cool!" Naruto said.

"Ok kid, ok. But you gotta live up to the deal first. Here you go, and enjoy. Hehehe..." Jiraiya said as he gave the book to Naruto.

Naruto sighed. Books were so infinitely boring. But he would survive through this ordeal to learn a jutsu from the ero-sennin. Flipping the book open, he began to read the first page.

Jiraiya for all intents and purposes was enjoying the serenity that was nature without Naruto's nagging voice. He closed his eyes, and the only sound that he could hear was the clacking his sandals made after every step.

Jiraiya lost himself in a daydream of Tsunade's ripe breasts, and that unforgettable day when he struck gold and saw them without any stupid barriers in all their glory in that public onsen in Konoha. Of course, she eventually found him and beat him to within an inch of his life, but that wasn't the point. He chuckled to himself remembering how she dragged Inoichi Yamanaka and demanded that he erase that image from his mind or face her wrath. Inoichi in a perfectly rational desire to stay alive complied with her demands, and escorted Jiraiya to the ANBU interrogation room.

There, Jiraiya's quick thinking saved his oh so precious memory via bargaining. Jiraiya made a deal with Inoichi; Jiraiya would keep his memory, but Inoichi would also get to see what he saw. One mindreading jutsu later, and the deal was sealed. Thank kami that all men cannot resist the forbidden fruits that are Tsunade's breasts.

Wait a second, it's still quiet. _What_?

Jiraiya pulled himself out of the daydream as he realized it was still quiet. He looked down at Naruto, who was engrossed in the book. Jiraiya saw that Naruto was nearing the end of chapter three, which was well above what the deal was.

Hehehe....the kid's a natural pervert. I'm so proud...

"Oi Naruto. Naruto. Earth to Naruto. Naruto I'm going to teach you a S-class jutsu."

Naruto stopped reading and looked up at that last part. "Huh?"

Jiraiya was grinning like mad. "Naruto, I said you only had to read up to chapter two. I see that you're almost at four. Like the book, eh?"

Naruto started turning a shade of red. "NO! I didn't like it! It's just...well..."

Jiraiya turned on his 'time to act like a mentor' switch. "Naruto, there's nothing wrong with liking it. Heck, you're right at that age where you should be curious. And I hope you are you little brat. I don't know what I would do if my student was bent."

Naruto had no idea what the hell he just said. "Huh? What's 'bent?'"

Jiraiya realized his blunder. How to explain this without destroying any innocence the kid might still have? Jiraiya of course forgot to take into account the fact that by letting Naruto read that book much of said innocence was had already gone 'poof.'

"Well it's...um...playing for the other team. Yeah, playing for the other team." Jiraiya sagely nodded.

This made Naruto even more confused. "Playing for the other team? Are we playing a game?"

Jiraiya decided that subtlety wasn't going to work on Naruto. So he told it like it is.

"It means you like guys the same way you like your Sakura-chan, you stupid brat."

The shade of red on Naruto's face was almost instantly replaced by a pale white color.

"What the heck is that?! No, I like Sakura-chan! Not Sasuke! Oh my god I'm going to be sick," Naruto said pretending to vomit.

Jiraiya chuckled as he hit Naruto in the back, going along with the vomit gesture. "Well, I wouldn't hold it against you if you did. But nontheless, it brings me great joy that you are a fellow partaker in the pleasure that is the female body! You like Sakura, right?" Naruto nodded vigorously. "So what is it you like about her?"

Naruto didn't even have to think. "She's Sakura-chan!"

Jiraiya waited. And waited. And waited. As they continued on for the next minute, he realized that that was _it_. What the heck? He likes her because she's who she is? Granted, that's about as pure and genuine a love as love can get, but Jiraiya had a feeling that that's not exactly what Naruto meant.

"So you like her because of her name? That's kinda, I don't know...lame?" Jiraiya deadpanned.

Naruto was flabbergasted. Ero-sennin did _not_ just defile the sacred love that he had for Sakura-chan.

"I don't like her because of her name! Although her name is really pretty too..." Naruto trailed off, and mused for a bit. Then he derived some moral fiber from somewhere, and continued on. "Sakura-chan is really pretty. She's really nice, and cares about everyone." Naruto was pleased with himself, and looked at Jiraiya with a smirk, daring the older man to beat _that_.

Jiraiya went into the classic 'I'm thinking' pose, and replied, "From what I've seen with you and your interactions with your team, Naruto, forgive me if that's not exactly the impression I got." Jiraiya looked down at Naruto, who was shooting questions from his eyes. "Your 'Sakura-chan' is really pretty? Sure, but kiddo, did you see the forehead on her? You could hang a billboard on that thing."

Naruto was incensed, and about to blow a head gasket when Jiraiya continued on. "Ok, that was a joke, sorry brat. I'm sure she's pretty. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and all that. But let's see." Jiraiya got a little serious. "You think she's really nice? Whenever I see you talking to her, it ends with her punching your lights out. She cares about everyone? If the definition of 'everyone' has changed in recent times to mean 'Uchiha Sasuke,' then sure, she cares about everyone." Naruto was about to make a valiant rebuttal, when Jiraiya held a hand out to stop him, and proceeded to finish. "Yeah kid, she's your first love. I know how that goes and whatnot. I'm sorry to be the one to break this to you, but she doesn't love you. I'm not sure if she even likes you." Naruto tore his gaze from Jiraiya, and looked at the ground, kicking a rock as he walked on.

Truth be told, he knew where she stood. He always shrugged off her punches with a smile, and took each rejection as a sign that she would eventually notice him.

Jiraiya sighed. Crushing a first love is always harsh. To do it now of all times probably wasn't the smartest thing he's ever done, but you have to pull rotten teeth out before the entire mouth has to be removed. Doesn't mean pulling out the tooth doesn't hurt though. He decided the brat needed some cheering up.

"Kid you want true love?" Naruto looked back up again, his facial expression shooting a question at him. "Then look no further than my book! It will teach you all about true love, how to attain it, and all the joys of the female body! If you get to chapter six, it'll even tell you all about the joys of lovemak--"

Naruto kicked Jiraiya in the shin before that statement ended. Hard. As Jiraiya yelped like a little girl and hopped around while furiously massaging his quickly bruising shin, Naruto chuckled lightly to himself. "Stupid ero-sennin; you really are a stupid ero-sennin, you know that?" Naruto was saying, but now with a slight smile on his face.

Jiraiya resumed a normal walking gait and smiled one of his rare genuine smiles. His shin didn't really hurt, but his antics brought a smile to the kid's face. "So I'm told, so I'm told you little brat. Don't worry about it. You're still young! You will come across many more women in your life, all the more because of your association with me, the famed toad sage! As a certain Konoha jounin says, you are still in the springtime of youth!"

Naruto got a vision of Gai and Rock Lee doing their signature thumbs up pose with their absurdly white teeth outshining the sun. He involuntarily shuddered. "Don't remind me ero-sennin."

Jiraiya grinned. As he was about to reply, the town was finally visible to them on the horizon. "Hey brat, we're almost in town. You want to race to the gate? If you win, I will teach you a stupendously awesome jutsu that will make you a ninja legend. If I win, you have to pay for dinner. You up for it?"

Naruto's response was to sprint off towards the village, yelling back, "I'll see you in town ero-sennin! Don't keep me waiting too long; I don't want to be old like you!"

Jiraiya stopped for a second, taking great offense at the verbal jab. "OLD? I am not old you little brat. I am in my prime! You merely are too young to see that." Jiraiya nodded to himself at his conclusion, and proceeded to run full speed towards the town. He caught up to Naruto in no time, and passed by him. "As much as I want to teach you that jutsu, I'm sorta broke, and need you to pay, so I have to win this race Naruto. No hard feelings ok?"

Naruto was in awe of how fast the old man could move. He could really move if given the proper motivation. Naruto decided to store this bit of information in his head as he slowed down to a jog; he wasn't going to catch up to Jiraiya. While jogging, he decided that, although he loved Sakura, she didn't love him, and that wasn't going to change anytime soon. He allowed himself to daydream about falling in love. 'Is it really possible for me to fall in love with someone who'll accept me for me? And for what I am?' Naruto did some thinking, and came to a conclusion. 'Yeah, there has to be. Ero-sennin said I'll meet many more women in my life, and at least one has to like me at some point.' Satisfied with what he came up with, he put on his signature smile and came to a stop at the gate of the town, where a grinning Jiraiya was waiting for him.

AN: Just a background introduction chapter. I had to get Naruto to feasibly begin looking at other women before meeting up with Shizune, and I thought I did a half decent job of it. It also built on the student-teacher relationship Naruto has with Jiraiya.

As always, R&R is most appreciated. Seeing how I'm a first-time writer, I guess even flames are accepted, as long as I can see where you're coming from, at any rate.

Next chapter: Naruto and Jiraiya finally catch up to Tsunade, but Tsunade isn't alone.


	2. Chapter 2

Hello again.

I wanted to at least get the two to meet each other before I called it a night. So here's chapter 2.

* * *

"Where IS she, ero-sennin?" Naruto asked. "You said she'd be in this town tonight."

Jiraiya was pondering the same thing. "Well Tsunade wouldn't have traveled as fast as we were, and this is the only town for miles, so she either came here or is camping out somewhere, and knowing Tsunade, she needs sake every day if she's traveling, and she already would have drank all of the sake she packed on the first day, so she has to be here." Jiraiya concluded.

Naruto blanched, and looked at Jiraiya. "Wow ero-sennin. That actually made sense. I guess you're not a stupid ero-sennin at least."

Jiraiya sighed as he stopped looking around for Tsunade and looked at Naruto. "Kid, even in the way you refer to me, I'm an ero-_sennin_. Sages are not stupid you little brat." He ruffled Naruto's hair a bit before looking for Tsunade again.

Naruto had already dispelled the twenty shadow clones he made to look for Tsunade. He had looked in every inn he could find, but to no avail. She wasn't even out in the streets. Then again, he was going off what Jiraiya told him to look for, which was for a, "really old blonde woman with the biggest, most perfect sets of breasts a man could ever want to touch."

Jiraiya had checked all the bars but shockingly came up empty. He figured between him and Naruto that they checked every place she would have been. He noticed a lot of little kids running around even with the sun almost completely set, meaning this was a kid-friendly town, which meant the town probably didn't have casinos or any shady institutions. If Tsunade managed to find an underground gambling site, they weren't going to find her if they searched all night.

Jiraiya was actually putting some real effort into finding Tsunade; he and Naruto had already spent three weeks on this goose chase. He had not kept up to date with his spy network, and the only plus he could see out of the entire trip was that Naruto had mastered two of the three steps to the rasengan. But most importantly, he had not visited a brothel in three weeks. THREE WEEKS.

"Ero-sennin." Naruto said, pulling Jiraiya out of his thoughts. "Since we can't find her, I think we should get a room or something before it gets completely dark out." Jiraiya could find no fault in that logic. "I remember seeing a really good inn not too far from here while I was looking for Tsunade-san."

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow at the last word Naruto said. "Tsunade-san? What the heck? Since when do you respect people you little brat."

Naruto shifted his feet, and gave the reply, "Well Tsunade-san's a sannin, right?" Jiraiya nodded. "Orochimaru may have been the biggest jerk I've ever seen, but there was no doubting that he was crazy strong. You might be an ero-sennin, but you're probably really strong too." Jiraiya looked very smug at this. "It's not that hard to believe that she would be equally as strong as you guys."

Jiraiya chuckled. Oh Naruto, you have no idea how _strong_ Tsunade is. No idea at all...

"Yeah Naruto, she's plenty strong. But I'm a little miffed at how she gets so much respect from you and I get nothing. Tsunade gambles, has a drinking problem, anger management issues, is physically violent, is under a genjutsu to hide how she really looks, and won't allow herself to be found by us!" Jiraiya basically yelled at the end of his rant.

Naruto chuckled. "Ero-sennin, I-- (insert stomach growling noise here)."

Jiraiya laughed uproariously. "Hungry huh, you little brat." Naruto looked away sheepishly. "Yeah, we haven't eaten anything since we stopped for lunch what, eight hours ago?" Naruto nodded. "Ok, well it just so happens that we're standing right in front of a family restaurant!" Naruto looked to his left, and wouldn't you know it, they were. He realized that he should pay more attention to what was around him. It certainly would help him in the long run, being a shinobi and all that.

Jiraiya grinned when Naruto looked to his left; the kid had no idea that they were right in front of a restaurant. He'd have to use this to one up the brat later. "Well brat, I did beat you to the town, so if you wanna grab some food, let's go!" Jiraiya said.

Naruto only shook his head as he walked into the restaurant, with a still grinning Jiraiya right behind him. "Ok brat, go get us a tabl---TSUNADE!" Jiraiya exclaimed pointing his finger at a table occupied by a woman.

The blond woman at the table perked up at hearing her name, and when she saw who it was, she couldn't suppress her shock. "Jiraiya? What are you doing here?"

Naruto was flabbergasted. THAT was Tsunade? He thought all the sannin were fifty years old. That blond lady looked like she was still in her twenties for crying out loud. How is she a sannin?

Naruto decided to voice his thoughts. "Ero-sennin, aren't the sannin supposed to be fifty years old?" Jiraiya looked at Naruto, a little confused. "Yeah, so?" Naruto then replied, "Well that lady over there doesn't look fifty."

Jiraiya laughed at this, and gave Naruto a mild noogie. "I said she was under a genjutsu to hide her real appearance, remember?"

Naruto did a mental facepalm. 'Oh yeah...'

Jiraiya put his hand on Naruto's back. "Come on kid, let's go over to Tsunade's table. Maybe you'll luck out and she'll pay dinner for us."

Naruto snorted. _Yeah right. If she's anything like you, she'll make me pay for her too._

Jiraiya and Naruto sat down across from Tsunade. A waiter quickly came by, gave the two a glass of water, and asked if they were ready to order. Jiraiya began to skim through the menu as Naruto asked what ramen flavors they had.

The waiter looked contrite as he replied, "I'm sorry, but we do not have ramen on our menu."

Naruto was in shock. Full fledged shock. What kind of restaurant doesn't serve ramen? This broke the second of his three absolute laws of the universe: that all restaurants serve at least one flavor of ramen. Then again, his first law was that he would love Sakura-chan until the end of his days. He believed that the first law would be broken someday too. So basically in one day, his entire universe was turning inside out.

"Oh Kami..." Naruto groaned. "You don't serve ramen here? What am I supposed to eat? Huh?"

The waiter looked slightly miffed. "I am sorry that we don't serve ramen here, but please do take a look at our menu. There are several dishes that I am sure you will find to your liking."

Naruto didn't think so, but he looked at the menu anyways. Sure enough, nothing jumped out at him. Shaking his head, he began to wonder what he was going to do for dinner.

During the entire exchange, Tsunade was slightly grinning to herself. Kami, he looked exactly like Nawaki did. Same attitude too. Nawaki loved tonkatsu as much as this kid seems to love ramen. _Maybe..._

Tsunade intervened on the waiter's behalf. "Waiter, one order of tonkatsu for the brat here."

The waiter nodded, and Naruto just about exploded. "What?! You can't order for me! I have to pay for my own meal! I'm going to get what I want! Waiter-san, five bowls of miso ramen please."

The waiter by now was getting exasperated. "Once again, we don't serve ramen here. Please do try the tonkatsu; it is a dish that our restaurant does quite well, if I do say so myself."

Naruto was about to send a retort when Jiraiya cut him off. "Naruto, ever wonder why you're so darn short?" Naruto nodded. "You only eat ramen, you little brat. You need to diversify what you eat, so you intake the right nutrients so you can grow taller. Healthier too for that matter. Now eat the tonkatsu. Jeez, it won't kill you." Naruto leaned back into his seat, clearly unhappy with the whole mess.

Jiraiya sighed. "I'll pay for your tonkatsu Naruto, so can you enjoy it now?" Naruto looked up, and he nodded vigorously. "Of course, you're still going to pay for MY dinner. Waiter, three bottles of sake and two orders of curry rice for me."

The waiter nodded, and left. Naruto stood up from his seat and loomed over Jiraiya, pointing his finger at him. "What the heck ero-sennin! Are you trying to bleed me dry? I had no idea you ate so much, or I never would have accepted that stupid deal!"

Jiraiya put his right hand on Naruto's head, and forced him to sit down. "Jeez brat, my meal costs less than five bowls of miso ramen, so what's got your panties in a knot?" Naruto looked away, mumbling about old perverts needing to get drunk to feel young again.

Jiraiya was about to show Naruto how young he exactly was via a painful punch to the face when Tsunade intervened on Naruto's behalf. "So Jiraiya, who's the brat."

Jiraiya shifted his focus to Tsunade. "He's Uzumaki Naruto, the number one most hyperactive knucklehead ninja in all of Konoha," he finished with a grin.

Tsunade perked up at hearing the surname, and looked at Naruto seriously for the first time. "Uzumaki? So he's..."

Jiraiya put up a hand to stop her. "Yep. He's that."

Tsunade shook her head and took another shot of sake. That was only her second one, so she still had a ways to go yet before she'd start yelling and throwing chairs around. Besides, this time, Jiraiya was here, so the damage she could do would be limited. Grinning at this knowledge, she immediately took her third shot of sake.

Jiraiya noticing this, immediately said, "I'm not paying for the damages."

Tsunade smirked. "You wuss." She took her fourth shot of sake. "So what brings you to the outskirts of Konoha?"

Jiraiya decided it was time to be serious. "You know that Orochimaru led an attack on Konoha and killed Sarutobi-sensei?"

Tsunade looked away, pouring herself a fifth shot, but not drinking it right away. "Yeah I heard." She noticed Naruto looking down dejectedly, with the hint of tears in his eyes.

Jiraiya was about to reply when the waiter arrived. "Here is your sake, sir." The waiter put three bottles of sake on their table, and gave Jiraiya a shot glass. "Your meal will arrive shortly." The waiter left to take the orders from another table.

Jiraiya poured himself a shot of sake, and drank it, reveling in the pleasure that was alcohol. "Ahhh, good stuff." He poured himself another shot. Picking it up, he turned to Tsunade. "The village needs a new hokage, Tsunade. The council has determined that it will be you. They sent Naruto and me to bring you back to Konoha so you can begin your reign of terror as the Godaime Hokage."

Tsunade finished her sixth shot of sake and stared at Jiraiya impassively. Naruto did not take this news impassively. "SHE'S THE NEXT HOKAGE?! I THOUGHT WE CAME TO GET HER SO SHE CAN FIX KAKASHI-SENSEI AND SASUKE! What the heck ero-sennin! Didn't you say she gambles a lot? And look at her, she's already on her seventh shot of sake, so she obviously has drinking issues. And--"

"No thanks. I decline." Tsunade said.

"And, and....eh?" Naruto finished lamely.

Jiraiya chuckled. "Those words sound familiar. I recall you using them when I asked you out all those years ago."

Tsunade smirked. Naruto blanched.

"Why don't you want to be hokage?" He asked. For the love of kami-sama, he couldn't fathom why anyone would turn down the opportunity to be hokage. Hell, he'd wear the hat right now if the council gave it to him.

Tsunade shrugged. She was already slowing down. 'Eight shots and I'm already like this? Oh this night is going to suck...' "I have no love for that village."

Naruto's shock at why someone would refuse to be hokage was quickly dissipating into righteous anger. "How can you not love your village? Ero-sennin told me that you were the granddaughter of the first hokage! It's basically your village. How can you hate it? How can you not want to be hokage? If they asked me to do it, I'd say yes in a heartbeat and be the hokage right away." Naruto all but shouted the last few words.

Tsunade blocked him out as best she could, but she couldn't block out the words he was shouting at the end. _"..be the hokage right away."_ 'Oh Kami-sama...'

Tsunade gave her full attention to Naruto. "So brat, you want to be hokage or something?"

Naruto nodded and gave Tsunade his trademark smile. "Yep! I'm going to be the greatest hokage that ever lived!"

Tsunade flinched and physically moved back into her chair. She had heard those exact words from the two most important males in her life. To see someone who looks so much like Nawaki say those words to her again was something she did not want. It brought back the worst memories of her life. The memories of their deaths. In Nawaki's case, his bloodied body brought back to the morgue, barely recognizable. In Dan's case, her failing to save his life, even with all of her supposedly legendary medical jutsu. The memory of his blood on her hands was something she could never forget.

The table had fallen into an uncomfortable silence at the end of Naruto's declaration. Tsunade was idly drinking shots when she was in the mood, Jiraiya was doing much of the same thing except he was additionally scoping out the restaurant for attractive women. Naruto was lost in his own thoughts.

The waiter came back with the food to break the table out of its reverie. "Here you are sir," he said as he handed Jiraiya his curry rice. "And here you are," He said as he handed Naruto his plate of tonkatsu.

Jiraiya grinned over at Naruto. "Well kid, thanks for the meal," as he greedily dug into his plate.

Naruto tried a piece of his tonkatsu, and realized the thing tasted GREAT. Not quite miso ramen level, but it might beat out shrimp ramen. He came to the conclusion that this 'tonkatsu' was quite edible and delicious, and proceeded to tear through his meal at a lightning pace.

Tsunade chuckled when she saw Naruto's reaction to the tonkatsu. "So brat, taste any good?"

Naruto was stuffing his mouth with tonkatsu pieces, and consequently couldn't give a verbal reply. So he just nodded as he proceeded to choke himself to death with tonkatsu.

Naruto wolfing down tonkatsu reminded Tsunade of when Nawaki used to do the same thing. She loved her little brother dearly, and the memory brought a faint smile to her lips. Drinking does help recalling the good old days, after all.

After about five minutes, Naruto was done with his dinner. He leaned back, very satisfied with the meal. He was nowhere near full, but he decided he'd order some more after he digested what he already ate. Jiraiya wasn't even done with his first plate, but he looked like he was savoring his meal rather than pretend to be in an eating contest.

Tsunade was already getting a buzz, and was getting quite bored of just watching the two of them eat. She pulled out a deck of cards, and asked if Jiraiya wanted to play a hand. If she wins, Jiraiya lends her some capital for gambling purposes. If Jiraiya won, she'd listen to what he had to say before telling him 'no.' Jiraiya agreed, and Tsunade began to shuffle.

It was then that a young girl with short black hair walked into the restaurant. She had on a black kimono, with a white undershirt. She would have looked perfectly plain had it not been for the small pig cradled in her arms. She looked around, and found the familiar blond hair that her master had.

"Tsunade-Sama! The veterinarian said that Tonton is perfectly fine, and that there's no need to worry about her leg," she yelled as she ran over to the table.

Tsunade looked up during her shuffling. "Oh Shizune, Tonton's ok then?"

Shizune slowed down as she approached the table. She noticed that there were two people sitting with her teacher. Upon closer inspection, she realized that the older man was none other than the toad sage, Jiraiya-sama, and she proceeded to introduce herself.

"Jiraiya-sama! It is a pleasure to meet you." Shizune said and bowed.

Jiraiya stopped eating for a second to look up at Shizune. He recognized her as Dan's niece. She had grown up a lot since he saw her last fourteen years ago. However, he thought she remained a part of the civilian population of the village. He was shocked to see her traveling with Tsunade.

His train of thought next led him to his super pervert ways. He checked her out, and was sorely disappointed. Shizune had not filled out at all. She might have been a B-cup at the very highest, and had nowhere near the sex appeal her goddess of a teacher had.

"Good evening, Shizune." Jiraiya replied. "I had no idea that you left the village with Tsunade. I thought you remained a part of the civilian population of the village."

Shizune blushed, and gave her reply, absently stroking Tonton's neck while doing so. "After Uncle Dan's death, I had no family left in Konoha. Tsunade-sama was the only family I had left. I had no desire to be put into an orphanage, so I begged Tsunade-sama to let me follow her. It took some doing, but I managed to get her to say yes."

Jiraiya nodded, realizing that that made perfect sense. Dan was a jounin, and there was no way Shizune wouldn't be a ninja. "Well Shizune, why don't you take a seat and order something?"

Shizune smiled. "I'd be glad to Jiraiya-sama, though I have a question. Who is that sleeping boy to your right?"

Jiraiya looked to his right, and wouldn't you know it, Naruto fell asleep. It was pretty late; well past the kid's normal bed time. He chuckled to himself. 'Kid's still a little brat. I forget that at times...'

Jiraiya grabbed Naruto and started to lightly shake him. "Naruto, wake up. Wake up you little brat." Naruto proceeded to start snoring. Shizune giggled at this, wondering who the cute little boy was. Jiraiya, realizing his efforts were getting him nowhere, proceeded to pull out the ultimate Naruto alarm clock. He bent over, and whispered in Naruto's ear, "All you can eat free miso ramen."

Naruto shot up awake instantly, looking around excitedly for the free ramen. When there was none, and he only saw a laughing Jiraiya, Naruto was seething, and said, "GAH. Ero-sennin! Why did you wake me up? And where's my free all you can eat miso ramen?"

Tsunade laughed out loud when she realized what Jiraiya did to get him to wake up. Shizune's giggles escalated into a soft laughter of her own when she too realized what happened. Turning his head towards Tsunade, Naruto grinned sheepishly. "I guess there's no free ramen, huh." Then he turned his head towards the other source of laughter.

What he saw was a lightly laughing girl who looked to be a couple years older than him. She had a pig cradled in her arms, and she was wearing a plain black kimono. But that wasn't what Naruto was looking at. No, his attention was fixated on her smile. Her smile was more endearing than any he'd ever seen before. It was full of amusement and warmth. Just by looking at her smile Naruto began to feel warm inside, and strangely enough, very happy. He couldn't describe what he was feeling. Never in his life had he seen anything so beautiful. 'Holy cow...who, is she?' Naruto thought.

Shizune stopped her laughing to introduce herself to the little boy. He looked like a deer caught in headlights. 'Must be because I'm holding a pig in my arms.' Shizune mused. She kept her smile up and introduced herself to the little blond. "Hello there. My name's Shizune, and this little piglet here is Tonton. Say hi, Tonton." Tonton gave a little squeal as a hello. Shizune's smile got brighter after Tonton said 'hi' to Naruto. Tonton was awfully shy, and for her to greet anyone without running away was a major accomplishment. Turning her smile to Naruto, she asked him, "And what's your name?"

Naruto, transfixed by how darn pretty she looked, could only manage his name. "Naruto..." he said. "Uzumaki...Naruto."

AN: I know it seems like it's that love at first sight thing, but it isn't. Shizune (FOR NOW) is looking at Naruto like a little boy, which he is. Naruto's reaction to Shizune is just what it is. He's just transfixed at how nice a smile she has. Think about it. In the canon up to now, the only people who've really smiled at Naruto up to this point are Iruka, the third hokage, Kakashi (with that eye smile he has), a couple of his friends (of which none are female), and Jiraiya. So for someone like Naruto, who was abused all his life, to see a feminine smile for the first time, and a pretty one at that, let alone earnest, would be quite a shocker. Especially because the smile was directed at him. At least, that's how I wanted it intrepreted.

Next chapter should be up in the next day or two. Reviews always welcome.


	3. Chapter 3

Hello again.

I have to say I'm a little surprised (and ridiculously pleased) at the amount of positive feedback I've received so far. Reading through the first two chapters today, I noticed several grammar and spelling mistakes (they're fixed now), and a huge plot mistake that I quickly rectified. I'll do a better job proofreading from now on.

I'm not sure if I need to bump this up to a M rating or not. There's one crude sexual joke in the chapter somewhere, and some mature themes are mentioned later on. The tone of this chapter is a little more serious than the past two. Just a bit. Hope you enjoy it.

* * *

"Naruto-kun eh?" Shizune said. "Well it's a pleasure to meet you Naruto-kun."

Naruto had gotten past the shock of seeing such a tender smile being aimed, at him, and smiled brightly back at Shizune.

"It's nice to meet you too, Shizune-san." Naruto replied.

Shizune chuckled, and looked a little peeved. "Naruto-kun, no need to attach the -san. You're making me feel old when you do that. Just call me Shizune."

Naruto readily agreed, and was secretly pleased that she had taken to calling him using the -kun suffix so easily.

During the exchange, Jiraiya and Tsunade were focused on their poker hand. Jiraiya had just traded in three cards, getting himself a full house, aces over nines. He was grinning like mad inside, but managed to look impassive on the outside. He really should have upped the ante on this little bet. Tsunade wasn't the legendary sucker for nothing. Though now that he thought about it, is that title of hers a double entendre?

Oh boy. He just done it. He couldn't stop the lecherous grin from exploding out onto his face.

Tsunade decided to trade in four cards, having flopped nothing except for the ace of hearts. As she went to trade her cards in, she saw Jiraiya's face, and knew the eternal pervert was probably thinking about her in some shape or form. Tsunade shot him an icy glare that promised pain in the not too distant future. Throwing her four cards down, she drew four cards from the deck. She saw that the first three cards were the ten, queen, and king of hearts. The last card was hidden because of the way she picked them up. Tsunade put on her poker face, but it was difficult to keep up, because adrenaline was shooting through her system faster than Jiraiya can run after getting caught peeping. She then peeled the last card out from behind the king of hearts to reveal...the two of spades. Groaning out loud, because at this point she had nothing, and she knew Jiraiya had something, she threw her cards down and took her eleventh shot of sake.

"Kami, luck is never on my side."

Jiraiya laughed wholeheartedly, showing Tsunade his full house. Tsunade narrowed her eyes at his beautiful hand, and resigned herself to her fate.

"Ok Jiraiya, let's hear the nonsense."

Jiraiya was about to start, when he noticed that Naruto and Shizune really hit it off. They were talking to each other so naturally you'd think the little brat never had any insecurities.

Being serious for a moment, as he knew that the conversation between their apprentices could go a long way in developing Naruto's social skills and confidence, Jiraiya motioned the waiter to bring him two more bottles of sake (Tsunade at some point went through his second bottle, bring her shot count up to 19).

"Yo Tsunade, what the council wanted me to tell you will actually take quite awhile." Jiraiya said, making Tsunade groan in disgust. She decided she needed to be half sober for this, so she went through a quick set of hand signs, and performed a medical jutsu on her abdomen.

When Jiraiya asked her a question through a raised eyebrow, she told him, "I think I only want to hear this once, so I purged my system of some of the alcohol." She grinned. "If it weren't for this jutsu, I'd have died of alcohol poisoning so long ago...HA!" Tsunade finished inordinately proud of herself.

Jiraiya only shook his head at his former teammate as he got up and sat down at a table a couple tables away from Naruto and Shizune. The two didn't even notice Jiraiya leaving; they were too engrossed in the own conversation. When Tsunade raised her eyebrow, Jiraiya just motioned for her to sit down at his table. When she did, he whispered to her, "Some of this information is sensitive. It involves Naruto to an extent. Shizune, who I assume is a leaf ninja," Tsunade nodded, "isn't a jounin, so she isn't allowed to hear A-rank secrets."

Right on cue, the sake arrived, and Tsunade took her twentieth shot of the night. "Ahhh...feels only like shot number three." Jiraiya could only chuckle as he began to tell the message that the council wanted him to give to Tsunade. In the back of his mind, he hoped that Shizune would help Naruto break out of his shell.

* * *

"Wow, Naruto-kun. To have to fight against an A-rank nukenin from Kirigakure on your first C-mission is very impressive." Shizune said. "It speaks volumes of how skilled your team is that none of you died in the mission." She _was_ impressed. It was ridiculous for them to continue on after meeting the demon brothers, which made the mission at least a B-rank right there. To have to fight Zabuza and his protege not too soon after made it a borderline A-rank mission, which not even a team of seasoned chunin are sent on. She frowned at Kakashi's judgment, who put his team in a situation that could have (nine times out of ten _would_ have) killed at least one of them.

Naruto smiled at the compliment. Very rarely did someone pay so much attention to him. He could count the number of people on one hand: Iruka, Old Man Hokage, and the Ichiraku father and daughter combo. Out of those four, Ayame was the only girl, and she was always busy making his ramen when he came by for a meal, so she really didn't get to talk to him as much as the other three. In that sense, Shizune was the first girl to really sit down and listen to him, and she even seemed to enjoy it! Naruto couldn't remember a happier time in his life than what he was feeling right now.

"Shizune-chan," Naruto began. He called her this by mistake earlier on, and Shizune didn't take offense. If anything, she seemed to blush a little, and Naruto took that as an ok to call her that way.

"How come you're traveling with Tsunade-san?"

An innocent enough question. But to answer the question, she had to remember the worst memory of her life: when the last family member she had fell in combat.

Shizune faltered, but put on a grin nonetheless. She noticed that Naruto was very hesitant to ask her anything in the beginning of their conversation. She had managed to get him to be more talkative, and she didn't want to deny him an answer, which she believed would have made him be quiet for good. She didn't want that. She could see the same pain in her eyes that she saw in her own eyes so many years ago. Steeling herself, she began to answer his question.

"Naruto-kun, you learned about the Third Great Shinobi War in the academy, right?" Naruto nodded. He didn't remember much about it. More correctly, he didn't remember paying attention to Iruka while he was lecturing the class about it. But he did remember what the Yondaime did during the war. Naruto hero worshipped the greatest of the hokages, after all.

"Um, sorta. That was the one where Yondaime-sama killed a lot of Iwa ninja and earned the nickname 'The Yellow Flash', right?" Naruto tried hesitantly.

Shizune nodded. "Yes, the third war was between Konoha, Kumo, and Iwa. At the time, it wasn't uncommon for tens of ninja to die daily." Naruto blanched. Outside of the invasion, Naruto didn't know anyone who died on a mission for Konoha.

Shizune chuckled, though there was no mirth behind it. "Yes, hard to believe, isn't it?" Naruto nodded. Shizune sighed, took a deep breath and continued on. She wasn't looking at him now; she seemed to be lost in her own thoughts. "My Uncle Dan was a jounin for Konoha during the war."

Naruto stilled. The word 'was' didn't imply anything good.

"My parents were killed in a Kumo ambush, and I would have been just another child added to the growing responsibility of the orphanage had Uncle Dan not taken me in." Shizune then did the oddest thing. She smiled. "The time I had with Uncle Dan were some of the happiest of my life. I knew he was a jounin. I knew what that meant. I knew that he killed enemy ninja to protect our village, and that he saw friends and comrades dying around him everyday." Shizune then looked right into Naruto's eyes. "But you know what, Naruto-kun? He never brought that back home. He told me how he had lost his sister to an illness before I was born. He told me he was over it, but no one ever really is, and I knew that each time he came back to the village after a mission, he went to her grave first before coming home."

Shizune took a deep breath, leaned back into her chair ever so slightly, and continued on. "But none of that was important to me. I didn't know it then, but I know now that he was trying to do for me what he couldn't do for his sister. All I knew at the time was that he was the only one who cared for me, and loved me. And he always came back. Did you know that Naruto?" Naruto shook his head, but she wasn't looking at him." She seemed to get angry, ever so slightly.

"He always returned from his missions. He'd come back well before he said he would, which always made me happy. It became such that I took it for granted, that he'd always come back."

Naruto was holding on to her every word. His attention was so focused on her that even Jiraiya would have praised how hard he was concentrating.

Shizune had lost herself in her retelling, and almost forgot that she was just supposed to answer Naruto's simple question of why she was traveling with Tsunade. Shizune only meant to give Naruto some background on what happened, but once she started, she just couldn't stop. She had held back her emotions for fourteen long years. That was long enough.

"The Hokage assigned Dan on a mission." Naruto noticed that she no longer called him 'Uncle.' It was simple enough. A B-rank mission to scout out the borders for a suspected gathering of Iwa ninja. They were supposed to confirm the massing of Iwa troops, and come back with a rough idea of how many ninja were there. Dan's team went the day after. He had already done this mission several times. I didn't even worry about him when he left." She paused. Naruto quickly saw why; she was trying to hold back the tears that threatened to get out.

"It was...a trap, Naruto-kun." Shizune looked at him again and smiled. She managed to hold the tears at bay, but by doing so, had lost control of her voice. "Some of their ninja had already crossed the border, and by the time Dan's team reached the border, the Iwa ninja surrounded them. The mission was supposed to last half a day. By the end of the second day, I heard that Tsunade-sama had gone against the orders of the Hokage and took a rescue team to see what happened."

"She found Dan on the ground. He was bleeding out, and had been for hours. The Iwa ninja tortured him for information, but he refused to say anything. They raped his kunoichi teammates to death in front of him, and slit his best friend's throat because he wouldn't say anything." Naruto had turned ashen; he was learning real fast that the life of a ninja is not fun and games. He vaguely remembered the bell test Kakashi-sensei gave them, when he told Sakura to kill him or Sasuke dies. That lesson hit home, and he thought he understood the point of the lesson. How naïve he was. This was far more horrible than anything he could have even had nightmares of.

Shizune shook her head, and took a couple deep breaths to calm herself. "He couldn't say anything Naruto-kun. What Iwa wanted to know was the identity of the yellow flash. If he said that, Iwa could have infiltrated the village and killed him in his sleep, or hold his family hostage. And I know you know how essential the yellow flash was to being victorious in the war."

Naruto nodded, his expression grim. The yellow flash earned that title because of a jutsu that allowed him to travel at impossible speeds with a single seal, allowing himself to overpower enemy armies alone. He had no idea that four people gave their lives to protect the flash's identity, quite possibly saving his life and the lives of his family members. Heck, you could throw all the people of Konoha in there as well; the war would not have been won with the yellow flash.

"Now Naruto," Shizune said. Naruto looked at her after completing his train of thought. "What I just told you I have not told another soul. I ask that you please keep this a secret between us, is that ok?"

Naruto vehemently nodded. Shizune had quite possibly told him her innermost secret, and he'd sooner denounce ramen than betray Shizune after that.

"The thing is, Naruto. Ninja get ambushed all the time. I told you my own parents were killed because of one. I don't know if they were tortured for information or not, but realistically, they were." Shizune said. Naruto nodded, but had no idea where she was going with this. "In that case, Dan's death shouldn't have made me leave the village for fourteen years and not once want to return, right?" Naruto got the answer to his question, though he had already surmised as much. She left because the only person in Konoha who cared for her had been killed, and she had nothing left in the village anymore. This didn't answer why she left with Tsunade-san of all people, though...

As Naruto was about to ask Shizune why she left with Tsunade, Shizune cut him off. "Good Naruto. You're probably asking why I left with Tsunade-sama then, right?" Naruto nodded, slightly impressed with her mind reading ability. Did she have Yamanaka blood?

Shizune laughed, and Naruto flinched. This laugh did not give him the feeling of warmth that he got when he first met her. No, this laugh was mirthless, with a level of underlying fury that Naruto couldn't understand.

"Days before Dan died, the yellow flash and Jiraiya-sama went to the Hokage and said there was a breach of security; that their information network regarding Iwa was compromised. Heavily classified information was being leaked to the enemy, meaning someone of high rank in Konoha was the traitor. Jiraiya-sama didn't know who the leak was. He only knew that it existed. He recommended that all missions regarding Iwa be put on hold until either the leak was found or they received new information from a new source. The thing was, is that the Hokage knew that by holding missions back against Iwa, he would let Iwa get closer and closer to Konoha. And there was no telling how long it would take Jiraiya-sama to earth out the leak. Finding a new source of information on an enemy nation is hard enough, let along having to find one that's reliable. Given an impossible situation, the Hokage did something that I will _never_ forgive him for." Naruto's eyes widened. He waited for her to continue, but Shizune was shaking. She wasn't scared or sad or anything like that. No, she was shaking because she was having trouble containing her fury.

"Shizune-chan," Naruto said. Shizune looked at Naruto and calmed down for a second. Then Naruto asked her what the old man did, which brought back her shaking with renewed vigor.

"The _Hokage _decided to send a team out to the Iwa border, to give off the illusion that we were still ignorant of their plans, in an attempt to lure the spy out." Naruto closed his eyes. He knew what that meant. "The plan worked, Naruto-kun. It worked. The Iwa spy, extremely relieved that he hadn't been found out about yet, proceeded to do his normal duties. But by that time, Jiraiya-sama had narrowed down the number of potential leaks to ten. Eight ANBU, the yellow flash, and Jiraiya-sama each followed one of the potential leaks around. The one Jiraiya-sama followed happened to be the leak, and he was dealt with accordingly. A major _victory_ for the village." Shizune spat out.

Naruto realized what the old man had done to Shizune. He had sent her uncle on a true suicide mission. He sent them knowing of the dangers they were going to face. He sent her uncle on a mission knowing that he wouldn't come back alive. The four deaths probably saved more lives in the long run, but how can you explain that to the survivors of the dead?

Shizune was nearing the end of her answer. "Well there you have it Naruto-kun. I'm sorry I dragged the answer out so long. I didn't mean to, but once I started to talk about it, I couldn't stop. I'm sorry for telling you all that..." Shizune couldn't stop one tear from falling.

Naruto saw the tear fall. "It's ok Shizune-chan." He put on his trademark smile, which got a small grin from her. "I'm actually really touched that you told me all that. It means you really trust me and stuff, right?"

Shizune chuckled, and nodded. How had this little boy wormed into her heart so quickly? She found it easier to talk to him than anybody she had met before, even Tsunade-sama. It had to be the combination attack of his smile and his eyes. The cheeky smile that he wears to mask what he really feels. Who did he think he was fooling? And his eyes...if you look into them long enough, you see all the pain that he's endured in his life thus far; an amount far too great for someone his age. But it's because of that that he's so empathetic, and can understand your pain on a level no one else can.

"There's just one more thing, Shizune-chan." Naruto began to ask. Shizune turned to face him and looked at him funny, her facial expression asking him a question. "If you don't mind, Shizune-chan, I didn't really understand why Tsunade-san was the one you left with. I can understand why you would want to leave, but I don't see why she wanted to. I remember her saying earlier that she didn't love the village at all. Why is that?"

If possible, Shizune's facial expression showed even more pain than she did during the entire retelling of her uncle's death. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and said in barely above a whisper words that Naruto would never forget.

"Oh that, Naruto-kun? That's simple. She loved him. She was his fiancee."

AN: Ok, going way off into the world that is my AU. I didn't really plan for this, but I just went with the flow, and here I am. One of the reviews I got asked me if I was going to follow through with the canon. My answer to that is "Mostly, but when it does, it'll be for different reasons than given in the canon." Still no awesome Naruto X Shizune romantic stuff, but I wanted them to develop a strong connection before any of that began.

I hope the readers like how I took this. The story so far is a sine curve of emotions, in my opinion.

Positive Reviews/Questions/Constructive Criticism are all appreciated. If you're going to flame, try to throw a legitimate argument in there so I can gain something out of it.


	4. Chapter 4

Well here I am with chapter four. Sorry that I took so long in updating. Intended to update on Friday before I went off for an Independence Day mini-vacation, but I proofread through it, and it was so choppy that I decided not to. Not that it isn't still, but in my opinion it's more fluid that what it was. This chapter is longer than the first three chapters combined, so I hope you forgive me.

For those who read the latest Naruto chapter (Chapter 454)...anyone else think the Mizukage is a babe? I seriously considered writing a FF where Naruto gets exiled, goes to Kiri, becomes a Kiri-nin, becomes completely infatuated with the kage, etc. Her hair is hot.

I was very pleased to have received so much positive feedback.

If you care enough, I'll put up when I expect to have the next chapter uploaded by on my profile from hereon.

There will be yet more sexual jokes, and some profanity. If you are a teenage reader, and feel that this should be bumped to a mature reading, please don't hesitate to tell me through a private message or a review.

One more thing...I discovered that Naruto had a wiki (should have figured this out sooner) and went to the character profiles. In the manga, Shizune is 28 when Naruto is 12. In this fic, Tsunade has been out of Konoha for only 14 years, so she was 36 when she left. Shizune left at 5, so she's 19 now. Naruto's 12. Okay, there's the time line. I should have done my research from chapter one. I found and fixed more errors from the first three chapters AGAIN. Hopefully at last it's perfect. Most likely not.

Well, that's my opening rant. Here's what you really came here for...hopefully.

* * *

"And there you have it Tsunade," Jiraiya finished with a heavy sigh.

Tsunade did a couple small nods in acknowledgement. Most of what the council had to say didn't interest her at all. They would basically give her everything she wanted while she still lived in Konoha, but that was a given. Nothing was offered to her that she couldn't get for herself if she became the Hokage. No, the only thing that interested her was when Jiraiya began to talk about Naruto. She had heard about Jinchuuriki during her travels. She knew that they would be scorned, ridiculed, and basically outcast from society. So the fact that Naruto seemed to be as happy as he was and more or less sane was of some interest to her.

But even that was currently nowhere near as interesting as the conversation going on a couple of tables from them. Jiraiya may have been telling her what the council said, but both of them had their attention focused on Naruto and Shizune.

Jiraiya remembered that day. For him, he understood where Sarutobi-sensei came from; the Hokage had to sacrifice a few to save the masses. The leader of a village had to look at the big picture. He never did tell this to Tsunade, because he knew she wouldn't listen, and frankly, he wasn't sure if he could have either if he was in her shoes.

Tsunade was stunned. Shizune had never even spoke to _her_ about that day. During the retelling, memories of her time with Dan flooded through her brain. The first time they met, their first date, their first kiss, the time she gave him her grandfather's necklace, their first night together, and lastly, the best out of all of them, the time he went on one knee, held out a ring, and promised to love her always.

Tsunade faltered. She still missed him. In the dead of night, her thoughts always trailed back to him. And that day. Oh did she _hate_ that day. Her _sensei_ sent her _fiancé_ to his death. He later told her he did it for the village. That was absurd. Dan needed to die to save the village? And the villagers...they cheered so loud when that spy was executed. They were cheering for an event that occurred because of Dan's death. They were cheering for something Dan had to die for.

He also died to protect the identity of Minato Namikaze, the genius prodigy that sensei was grooming to be the Yondaime Hokage. Her fiancé died to protect the man who would eventually give her missions? The man who would become her leader? The man who took the title Dan had worked to get his entire life?

_No_. She wouldn't do that. To do anything of the sort would be an insult to Dan's memory, and more importantly, of their relationship. To her, Sarutobi-sensei and the entire village had essentially betrayed her. She couldn't live in Konoha any longer. She had found Shizune waiting for Dan at his house. He had mentioned Shizune to her in passing. The expression Shizune made when she told the little girl that her uncle wasn't coming back this time was something she would never forget. She managed to convince Shizune to follow her, after promising the little girl that she would never leave her. Both of them left Konoha one year before the second war ended, and they hadn't gone back since.

While sorting through her memories, Tsunade noticed Naruto walking over to her table. "Ero-sennin, I'm really tired. Shizune-chan's really tired too. Can we leave now?"

Jiraiya noticed that Naruto was indeed tired, as he was barely stifling yawns, and his eyes were drooping. Then he looked at Shizune. She looked emotionally spent. Her eyes were puffy from the few tears she couldn't hold back, and her posture could have represented 'exhaustion' on a motivational poster.

Deciding that everyone could benefit from some sleep, (he himself had taken far more shots of sake than he was used to; keeping up with Tsunade was so difficult...) Jiraiya gathered Naruto and Shizune and hand signaled Tsunade to follow him to the nearest inn. Sadly enough, Tsunade was more sober than Jiraiya at the moment due to the jutsu that she developed, which she told earlier she had affectionately dubbed 'twenty shots of sake can't get me drunk' jutsu.

The group of four entered the inn. Jiraiya asked for two rooms, and the innkeeper summoned two keys from what seemed to be thin air. _Was he a seal master?_

The foursome walked to their room silently, each having their own reasons for staying quiet. When they got to the rooms, Jiraiya posed them all a question.

"Hmm...I wonder," he began. "Who should I room with?" Naruto looked a question at Jiraiya, completely confused at what Jiraiya was saying and way too tired to give a damn. Tsunade however noticed where Jiraiya aimed to go with his train of thought. She closed her eyes and began to draw chakra to her fist.

Jiraiya promptly answered Naruto. "No offense Naruto, but I've been rooming with you for the past month or so. It's getting a little old, right?" Naruto nodded, not necessarily in agreement. He just wanted the conversation over and his body parallel to the floor, supported by a bed.

Jiraiya continued on, pleased with Naruto's answer. "Then that leaves us no choice! Shizune! You room with Naruto. I shall room with Tsunade-hime." Jiraiya was grinning at the sheer brilliance of his plan. It was perfectly rational that a man would want to change roommates after rooming with the same one for over a month. It was also perfectly rational that a man should room with a woman. It was also rational that he would perform research on the body of the earthly goddess, Tsunade, and through his writing, share the results of his research with all the men in the world. With that said, a man's ability to think rationally goes flying out the window after taking over ten shots of sake.

Tsunade let him know how she felt about his proposition through a chakra-powered fist that sent the super pervert thirty feet down the hallway. In the afterswing, she caught one of the two keys that Jiraiya dropped. All this with her eyes closed.

"Shizune!" Tsunade yelled. Shizune got out of her reverie. "Hai, Tsunade-sama?" Tsunade opened the door to their room. "Get in here."

Tsunade entered the room, and Shizune followed.

Naruto had dozed off during the exchange, and opened his eyes only after he heard a thud from pretty far away. He saw Jiraiya sprawled on the floor, and didn't see Tsunade or Shizune. Having no idea what the heck just happened, he walked over to Jiraiya.

When he got there, Naruto realized Jiraiya had taken a beating. His entire face was bruising rapidly, and his body seemed to be twitching. Naruto however was a little confused after giving Jiraiya's face a second look. Why the heck was ero-sennin smiling? Hearing a low murmur from Jiraiya, Naruto bent down, and heard, _"perfection...round and firm...succulent..."_

Naruto had heard enough. He more or less had an idea of what happened. Stupid ero-sennin probably tried to take a peek at Tsunade-san's breasts, and partly succeed, upon which Tsunade beat the hell out of him.

"Baka ero-sennin..." muttered Naruto. He took the room key that Jiraiya had managed to hold on to, went into the room, found the bed, collapsed on it, and went to sleep without changing. _What a day...  
_

_

* * *

_

It was the dead of night. Shizune had been sleeping for a couple hours, and she would undoubtedly need many more after what happened.

Tsunade's thoughts of Dan were much more vivid tonight. Try as she might, she couldn't get him out of her thoughts to think about other things, let alone sleep. She didn't bring any sake from the restaurant, so she couldn't drink herself to sleep tonight as well.

When the memory of his proposal came up again, she couldn't stop a few tears from shedding. She was glad that her love for him was this strong after all these years, but that only meant it hurt that much more. There was nothing she could do to have him back in her life. _Wait a minute._

Her thoughts then went to her meeting with Orochimaru earlier in the day.

_**Flashback**_

Tsunade and Shizune were walking by a Castle when the sun went out. Tsunade turned her head towards the sun to see what was impeding the sunlight. Her eyes flared in surprise; it was the last person she had expected to meet. _Orochimaru..._

Orochimaru and some goofy looking kid wearing glasses with a gray ponytail jumped down from the castle. They landed about five feet from them.

Orochimaru looked at Tsunade and smiled. Tsunade narrowed her eyes in response; that smile of his meant nothing good. The glasses kid just stood behind to the right of Orochimaru, and Shizune looked at Orochimaru's arms, wondering what on Earth could have done that.

The silence lasted for another minute before Orochimaru broke it. "Tsunade, it has been so long. You haven't aged a day I see. Perhaps you have succeeded where I am still trying and developed an immortality jutsu? If so, you must tell me _all_ about it," Orochimaru finished, turning his smile into a knowing smirk.

Tsunade chuckled as she slowly blinked and turned her face away from his. When she opened her eyes, she was staring at a lone cloud lazying by through the sky.

Smiling, Tsunade decided that she wanted to be a little lazy today, and indulge herself with some gambling and sake. It had been over a day. "Orochimaru, just get to it. I don't want to be here, you don't want to be here, so why don't you just say what you have to say so we all don't have to be here."

Orochimaru agreed. There were other things that needed his attention at the moment as well.

"Tsunade. I paid Sarutobi-sensei a little visit not too long ago." Tsunade opened her eyes a little bit in surprise. Orochimaru then broke out into the most genuine smile he had in him. "Let us just say that I am still here, ku ku ku..."

Tsunade understood the implication. Orochimaru had killed Sarutobi-sensei.

"My victory was not without injury, Tsunade," Orochimaru continued on. "Sarutobi-sensei invoked Shiki Fuujin, in a desperate attempt to kill me. He however could not finish the task, and sealed only my arms. I need my arms fixed Tsunade."

She widened her eyes at the mention of the reaper death seal, but mentally snorted when he asked her to heal him. For someone reputed to be a genius, he really didn't understand the emotional bonds people create between each other. Or maybe it was that he couldn't; after all, if he could, would he have done what he did?

She thought of the raining night when she had moved heaven and earth to get to Nawaki as fast as she could upon hearing that he had been severely injured in a mission. When she arrived at where he was being treated, her teammates were waiting for her at the entrance. Jiraiya's face turned ashen when he saw her, triggering her to break out into a cold sweat. Jiraiya told her that he had died, and held her as she cried her heart out. Certainly one of Jiraiya's better moments.

But not Orochimaru's. All that snake-loving git did was tell her that they had trouble identifying him due to the sheer amount of blood and damage to his face. He did that with a smile. He couldn't contain his mirth for what he told her next, that they couldn't even identify him through fingerprints because both arms were torn off.

Bring her consciousness back to the present, she gave Orochimaru a once over. His arms were an unnatural black. If they were sealed off, then that meant that they were basically a tumor to his body. He would soon begin to feel the effects of necrosis, if he hadn't already begun to experience them. Running through the symptoms of necrosis quickly in her head, she smiled when she go to 'intolerable pain.'

Misinterpreting her smile as a 'yes,' Orochimaru grinned widely and walked towards her when Tsunade calmly replied, "No thanks. I decline."

Orochimaru had a dumbfounded look on his face and immediately stopped advancing towards her. He almost looked hurt. Then she realized she had a golden opportunity to get back at him for what he said about Nawaki so many years ago. _Oh this is going to be fun._

Orochimaru paled (he turned a fainter shade of white). "Tsunade, what--"

She cut him off. "I don't even recognize your arms. I mean, they're so _black_ and all. Can you even do jutsus anymore?" She then laughed out loud to her heart's content, and proceeded to walk away, leaving a very confused Shizune to wonder what just happened.

He was somewhat miffed at her response, and a little bit surprised that Tsunade, who many years ago was little more than a fangirl towards him, would refuse this opportunity to help him. He didn't expect this reply from her. Quickly trying to come up with a solution, Orochimaru gave Tsunade an equally bright smile when he realized that he could offer her something he knew she couldn't refuse.

"Heal my arms Tsunade, and I will give back to you the two men in your life that you loved more than life itself."

Tsunade flinched and immediately stopped smiling. Shizune gave Orochimaru a vicious glare and prepared her senbon for an attack.

Orochimaru grinned. This had the exact effect he wanted.

"I will say it again Tsunade. Heal my arms and I will give you your little brother and fiancé."

Tsunade narrowed her eyes and bared her teeth in anger. Shizune lost her cool and fired off two quick senbon at Orochimaru, who blocked it with his arms by turning his body. They flopped around uselessly, but had managed to stop the attack. Orochimaru grinned. 'First time these useless arms were of service; I didn't even feel that.'

His grin quickly faded as Tsunade threw a punch into the nearby wall, leaving nothing but dust. Her eyes held nothing but repressed fury as she quietly said, "Don't fuck with me Orochimaru."

Never one to let others have the last word, Orochimaru chuckled and left her with a parting shot. "Don't forget Tsunade, I know all about you. More so than anyone else alive. Probably." Tsunade's eyes narrowed once more. "Let us not forget that I know of your one weakness." Orochimaru said as the blood trail from his arms had finally gotten to his fingertips and fell onto the ground. Tsunade, noticing the blood, instantly paled, and went down on her knees, shaking and holding herself.

Kabuto's left eye raised up in surprise. _Hematophobia? This is most surprising. For a medical ninja to be afraid of blood..._

Kabuto shook himself out of his thoughts, and addressed the shaking Tsunade. "Tsunade-sama, for us to bring back your brother and fiancé, we will need two bodies. Please have them prepared in two days. We will meet you in the grassy fields to the east of the next town."

Kabuto poofed out of existence and Orochimaru sunk into the ground, leaving behind a shaking Tsunade and a troubled Shizune.

_**End Flashback**_

She had never even considered taking the offer. _As if that snake would ever live up to his end of the bargain._ But as it was, she was an emotional wreck at the moment, and wasn't thinking clearly. She surprised herself by leaving the room through the window.

She began to walk around the town. All the children that made the streets so lively earlier on had gone back home. The streets were quiet now. There were hardly any traces of life. There wouldn't have been any, if it weren't for her and two drunk men being ushered out of a bar by the owner.

"Get out and stay out! You are no longer welcome here!" Yelled the owner as he slammed the door in the taller drunk's face.

The two drunks beat on the door for a couple seconds, yelling incoherent gibberish. They quickly grew bored, and proceeded to walk down the road. Well not 'walk,' so much as stumbling and bumping into each other every other step. They had managed to get about ten steps down the road before the taller one collapsed on the shorter one and they both fell asleep where the fell.

Tsunade walked over to the two drunks. They reeked with the smell of sake, but this wasn't anything she wasn't used to. She gave them a closer inspection. They were some ugly looking men. Their hair looked like it hadn't seen water in months, and shampoo in years. They had some grotesque looking scars on their faces. They probably got cut there in some fight, and didn't bother to wash it out, which triggered an infection. Both men were seriously overweight, and wore little more than rags as clothes.

Tsunade did not find the view pleasing. _Ugh, even Jiraiya's better looking than these two worthless drunks..._

Then it hit her. Two drunks. Two sorry excuses of human beings who probably went from town to town, stopping at local bars, ordered a ton of food and sake, got roaring drunk, and had the owners kick them out to avoid having to pay. She played her meeting with Orochimaru back in her head. Her thoughts then raced through all the memories she had of Dan and Nawaki. _She could do it. She could have them back in her life. The only cost would be these two drunks, which no one would miss._

Tsunade stared at the drunks for a good ten minutes. In that time, the taller drunk had started to drool, and it ran down his face and into the shorter drunk's open mouth. _Gross_, thought Tsunade as she waged a war with herself on what she should do.

Another ten minutes later, Tsunade's face suddenly went blank. The war had been won. She silently drew a kunai, and began to walk toward the two drunks.

"Tsunade-sama, what are you doing." said a feminine voice.

Tsunade flinched, and looked to her right, in the direction of the inn. There stood a girl wearing a dark kimono and a white undershirt. _Shizune_.

Tsunade quietly put her kunai away. "I was going to break in, and steal some sake. I had trouble falling asleep, and some sake would have done the trick," she replied. The drunks had collapsed in front of a _bar_ of all places. Oh well. It made for a perfectly plausible story.

Shizune nodded, which Tsunade noticed. Even in the dark, her eyesight was superb. "Tsunade-sama, you know breaking into a bar is illegal," she began. "If you wanted some sake, you know that I have an emergency stash of sake for dire situations."

Tsunade was genuinely confused. "But I thought I went through that stash the second day we left Grass Country."

Shizune smiled. This time, Tsunade did not notice. "Oh that. That's not the emergency stash. That's the 'I know you didn't pack enough sake and you're going to cry about it later' stash. The _real_ emergency stash is something you are ignorant of, so that it is used in truly desperate times," she finished as her smile turned into a grin.

Tsunade took a deep breath and lowered her shoulders in relief. _How like Shizune, to prepare so well. She knows me better than anyone._

"Okay, okay. I won't break into the bar." Tsunade said. Shizune nodded, and proceeded to head back to the inn. She stopped when she realized that Tsunade wasn't following her. Turning around, it looked like Tsunade was checking the drunks to make sure they wouldn't die of alcohol poisoning in the night.

Shizune waited for Tsunade to finish, but Tsunade said, "Shizune, you head back first to the inn. I'll be there shortly. I promise," she added as an afterthought.

Shizune stood still for a couple of seconds, before slowly making her way to the inn. She wasn't even on her fifth step when she quietly said, "They won't come back. Whatever he does, it...it won't be them."

She then began to walk back to the inn without looking back.

Tsunade closed her eyes. She had just finished her ethanol cleansing jutsu on the shorter drunk, so the two idiots should be perfectly normal by daylight. Whether they'd be happy about that, who knows?

She got up and tried to go back to the inn. She tried, in the sense that she got up and faced the inn, but she did not take a single step towards it. She stood completely still for a couple seconds before turning her head at the two drunks again, giving them a really hard look.

* * *

The sunlight peeked through the windows and landed on Naruto's face. Going to sleep a little later didn't seem to do him much damage. He woke up feeling every bit as energetic as he normally did. If there was anything he was proud of, it was his stamina.

He looked around for Jiraiya, but couldn't find him. When he looked around in the room, he realized that he had left Jiraiya outside in the hallway. Ah. _Oops?_

He washed his face, brushed his teeth, made himself look presentable, and left the room. To his surprise, Jiraiya wasn't where Naruto had left him last night.

He then went down to the entrance of the inn, where Jiraiya was waiting for him at a table. Naruto walked over to him, and to his utter delight, Jiraiya had a warm bowl of miso ramen.

Naruto was salivating, and could only form the words '_miso...ramen...me...want..._' before he took a breath, and smelled the ramen. That was the breaking point. He could wait no longer. He all but dive bombed into the noodles, barely picking up the chopsticks before tearing into the ramen with a frenzy.

Jiraiya chuckled as Naruto began to choke from trying to eat too much at once. He hit Naruto a couple times on the back, as he told him to slow down. Naruto growled in response, but did slow down a bit. Jiraiya procured a cup of water from seemingly nowhere, and gave it to Naruto, who took it eagerly.

In less than three minutes, the bowl was completely empty. You could have washed the bowl ten times, and it wouldn't look as clean as it did right then.

Naruto burped, and let out a satisfied sigh. "Ero-sennin. You. Are. AWESOME! How did you know I wanted to eat ramen for breakfast?"

Jiraiya shook his head. "Kid, that's all you want to eat for _any_ meal."

Naruto grinned sheepishly. "Oh yeah."

Jiraiya then looked over in the direction Naruto came from, and said, "Tsunade and Shizune haven't come out yet. I wonder why."

This train of thought went down the gutter fast.

Jiraiya started to grin lecherously as he prodded Naruto and whispered in his ear, "Hey kid. What do you think they're up to?"

Naruto didn't understand what was going on. "Sleeping. Why?"

Jiraiya let out an exasperated sound and whispered again in Naruto's ear, "You know what I think? I think they're doing the nasty. I think they're...doing it." Naruto started to turn a shade of red as Jiraiya got to thinking. _I should be doing research. What the heck am I still doing here?_

Jiraiya proceeded to leave quickly, but Naruto grabbed his arm and said, "Oh no you don't you ero-sennin. You're not going to do your _research_ on Shizune-chan."

Jiraiya was about to protest, but realized the kid had a point. Shizune was way too flat chested and underdeveloped for his tastes. Tsunade walking down the forbidden path would only be glorious and deserving of him to perform research on if her partner was as equally well endowed as she was. If not, it would be a travesty. And odds are they were just sleeping anyways.

Jiraiya sat down at their table and asked Naruto a question. "So brat, while we wait for Tsunade and your _Shizune-chan_ to come down, there anything you want to do?"

Naruto growled at being made fun of, but there in fact _was_ something that he wanted to do. And this was as good a time as any to ask for it.

"Ero-sennin," Naruto began. "I'm stuck at learning the rasengan and need some help. Could you..." Naruto faltered. Given his days at the academy, and even as a member of Team 7, it was hard for him to ask someone for help. Naruto took a deep breath, steeled himself, and put his heart on the line again. "Could you help me out?"

Jiraiya smiled. The brat hadn't asked him for help _once_ throughout their entire search for Tsunade. He gave Naruto the bare specifics, and Naruto somehow managed to perform what was asked of him, greatly surprising Jiraiya. But the rasengan was a fickle thing, and seasoned jounin couldn't do it properly, and that with proper tutelage. How was a genin supposed to figure it out on his own? Then he realized that Naruto had taken a big step in asking him for help, and further realized that Naruto had trusted him enough to ask. _Thanks kid, I won't let you down._

Jiraiya stood up with a yawn, clearly bored with it all. "Yeah, sure brat. It's not like I have anything to do anyways. Come on, let's go work on it somewhere private." Jiraiya led the way out of the inn.

Naruto followed him quietly without uttering a word.

No one saw the huge smile on his face.

"I just don't get it, ero-sennin!" Naruto exclaimed as he fell on his butt, exhausted. He had been at it for over two hours, and no luck. He just couldn't get the third step down.

Jiraiya just stared at Naruto. The kid _did_ get it. He hadn't had this much success in training anyone with the rasengan since, well, ever. He tried to teach Kakashi, the Yondaime's student, but that ended up disastrously. In fact, in his frustration, Kakashi gave an all-out effort in creating the rasengan, only to come up with a ball of lightning that sounded like a thousand birds chirping.

Kakashi later found out that the thing he made was an extremely effective assassination jutsu, but it required much more chakra than the rasengan. Jiraiya just told him 'If it works for you, great.'

Now here he was with Kakashi's student. The kid had progressed further than Kakashi ever had. He understood the concept of swirling the chakra in different directions without having each flow of chakra be impeded by another flow going in a different direction. He had managed to concentrate so hard that he burned a hole in his hand, which made the chakra flow faster, which added power to the technique. What Naruto could form _was_ the rasengan. He just had to do the third step, which was to cover what he could already form with a thin yet strong layer of chakra that prevented the swirling chakra from escaping out, maximizing the damage inflicted at one spot.

Naruto at the moment looked extremely upset with himself. He looked like he was ready to give up. Jiraiya decided it was time to be a little serious and let Naruto know just how close he was.

"Naruto." Jiraiya said, which made Naruto lift his head up and look at Jiraiya. "You have no idea, no idea at all, at how much progress you've made so far."

Naruto looked at Jiraiya dumbly, and began to protest. "But ero-sennin. I can't do the third step. It's so hard. It takes every bit of control I have to even form it up to the second step, and that's with a kage bunshin!

Jiraiya chuckled, and decided to let Naruto know the history of him trying to teach the rasengan.

"Kid, I've tried to teach the rasengan to several ninja in the past. They were all top notch ninja who had outstanding records as members of ANBU. _None_ of them got up to where you are right now. You have come the farthest out of anyone I have tried to teach."

Naruto went still for a moment, before breaking into a earsplitting grin. "You really mean that ero-sennin? You're not trying to pull a fast one on me are you? Are you?" Naruto was jumping up and down, his previous exhaustion completely forgotten.

Jiraiya laughed out loud in a manner similar to a fat dude who climbs down chimneys and gives free presents near the end of each year. "I kid you not Naruto. It's the truth."

Naruto started jumping around faster, ridiculously pleased with himself.

Jiraiya began talking again. "BUT, I did say that the third step was the hardest part." Naruto stopped his jumping, and mumbled something about ruining his moment. "The third step isn't the hardest part conceptually. It's in fact, the easiest to understand. It's just the hardest to _do_. There's nothing you can really do to learn it faster. It basically comes down to chakra control, pure and simple. If you have the control, you can do it. If not, you can't. That's all there is to it."

Naruto looked down at the ground upon learning of this. "So this means I can't do it, huh." He was blinking back tears. "I tried so hard to learn this, ero-sennin, I really did. I thought I could do it, but now you're tell me that I...can't."

Jiraiya chuckled, and ruffled Naruto's hair a bit before giving his reply. "I didn't say you can't learn it _ever_. I meant that you can't do it _now_ with your current level of chakra control. All you have to do is work really hard on your chakra control. Practice tree climbing until it becomes second nature for you to do so. Practice water walking until you it's no different to you than it is to walk on solid earth. Practice holding a leaf to your head until you don't even realize that you're doing it. If you work on your chakra control, there is no way in hell that you won't be able to use the rasengan someday." Jiraiya finished confidently.

Naruto looked at Jiraiya with awe. He could still learn the rasengan! And not only that, the ero-sennin gave him some additional training that would help him become Hokage! In a couple sentences, Naruto's respect for the toad sage had rose several notches.

Jiraiya laughed wholehearted at Naruto's expression. "Yeah, I only teach the best you know." Naruto grinned. "I think Tsunade and Shizune are definitely up by now. Heck, it's almost lunchtime. Knowing her, she's at that restaurant again on her thirtieth shot of sake. Let's just go there first. I'll bet you she's there." Naruto chuckled and shook his head. _Thirty shots by lunch? Holy crap..._

Sure enough, Tsunade and Shizune had woken up, and were currently eating lunch when Jiraiya and Naruto had entered the restaurant.

Shizune, upon noticing Naruto, gave him a warm smile and waved for him to hurry up. Naruto hesitated just for a second before breaking out his trademark smile and hurrying over to her. _It looks __like she's okay._ Jiraiya chuckled. _Young love...how sweet it is._ He briefly wondered if, in a couple years, he would be performing his research on the two of them. He then looked at the two. One was a hyperactive midget and the other was a reserved older woman. _Nah..._

Naruto took a seat opposite of Shizune. "Naruto-kun, I ordered two plates of tonkatsu for you. I saw that you were hungry after only eating one last night." Shizune said.

Naruto was extremely pleased. She understood that he wasn't completely satisfied with one plate, and she had ordered ahead of time, so that it would get here much sooner.

Naruto only had to wait a couple of minutes until the waiter brought the tonkatsu. Very hungry from training for the past two hours, Naruto dug into his plate with vigor.

Shizune chuckled when she saw how eagerly he was eating. She poured some water into an empty glass, patiently waiting for him to start choking on his food from eating too fast.

On cue, Naruto began to cough, and she gave him the cup of water, for which he was extremely grateful.

"Ah, whew. I coulda died there. Thanks Shizune-chan." Naruto said before he renewed his attack on his plate.

Shizune had already finished her meal and was quietly sipping on a cup of tea while amusing herself by watching Naruto eat. Tsunade and Jiraiya were quietly chatting about some of the finer details about what they talked about last night. Once that was done, she asked where the hell he was this morning.

"Jiraiya," Tsunade began. "Shizune and I waited over an hour for you two to show up. We thought you were still sleeping. I got sick of waiting and opened the door to your room to find you guys not there. I figured that you guys came down here to get something to eat, but you weren't here either. I was going to go to another restaurant when they brought this really expensive looking sake bottle, and well, you know me..." she finished with a grin.

Chuckling, Jiraiya took a sip of his tea and responded. "We were up before you two. I already ate, and I found some miso ramen that someone threw away, and I gave it to Naruto for breakfast." Naruto stopped eating for a second to look at Jiraiya in utter shock while Shizune narrowed her eyes at Jiraiya in distaste at what he had done.

Laughing out loud, he told them it was a joke, and would Naruto please learn what a napkin was.

He turned his attention back to Tsunade. "I was teaching Naruto a jutsu while we were looking for you two. He almost has it, but he got stuck at a certain point. He asked me for help, and I went out trying to help him out while you were snoring the day away."

Tsunade punched Jiraiya on the top of his head. "I do not _snore_ you peeping bastard." While Jiraiya was massaging his scalp, Tsunade asked him, "So what about this technique is he having trouble with?"

Jiraiya grinned and said, "Oh he isn't having trouble with the jutsu, per se. It's just a matter of chakra control. He's still too young to have the control he needs to use this jutsu."

Tsunade began to laugh loudly. Very loudly. It actually took her around twenty seconds to quiet down.

Jiraiya didn't understand what exactly was so amusing. "What's so funny?"

Tsunade, who had just about stopped laughing, replied, " The brat has crappy chakra control? I've never heard of a Hokage wannabe who even had _average_ chakra control. There's no way he can ever be Hokage."

Naruto's head shot up, and Shizune looked reproachingly at her sensei. "Tsunade-sama---" she began, but Naruto cut her off.

"Ero-sennin said that no one had the chakra control needed to use this jutsu when they were my age," he said monotonously. Shizune turned to look at Naruto, surprised at his tone of voice. Tsunade herself was surprised. She expected the kid to blow up and start yelling about how he was the greatest or something stupid similar to that. Heck, Naruto startled himself with his answer.

Tsunade quickly recovered. "Hey brat, I don't know what Jiraiya is thinking, but Shizune here had enough chakra control to be a hospital medic-nin when she was thirteen.

Naruto flinched. Sakura had mentioned things about medic-nin to him in the few conversations that she didn't do him physical harm. _Did she want to be one?_ Medic-nin were at least chunin level ninja who had extremely high chakra control. They specialized in medical jutsu to heal combat wounds, or treat patients in a hospital.

'So it is possible for ninja my level to have very high chakra control,' Naruto thought. _The Hokages were nothing but the best, and I have a long way to get there,_ he mused.

Shizune gave Tsunade a very hard look while Jiraiya inwardly was fuming at Tsunade. Shizune had high chakra control for her age because her chakra reserves weren't anywhere _near_ what Naruto had. Factor in the Kyuubi's chakra, and it's a miracle the kid has enough control to perform a henge.

Naruto finished his second plate, and let out a satisfied sigh. He turned his head to look at Tsunade, who he noticed was smirking at him. He decided that he needed to tone her down a little.

Naruto put his hands behind his head, leaned back into his chair, and put a lazy grin on his face. "Well if you're chakra control is _so_ great, then why don't you become Hokage?" Tsunade's eyes narrowed in anger. He knew that one would tick her off. Now for the haymaker. "And what do you know anyways? You're just a vain old hag who refuses to look her age. You're old enough to be a baa-chan. Hey you know what? That's what you are. A baa-chan. Tsunade no BAA-CHAN." Naruto finished, with a heavy inflection at the end of his little speech, grinning victoriously.

Tsunade snapped. _Nobody_ called her old, let alone call her a...._baa-chan_.

Realizing that she was imagining his very slow and painful death, Tsunade shook her head, got up, and pointed at the door of the restaurant. "Outside. Now," was all she said.

Naruto recoiled. He was a dead man walking. He pushes her buttons a little bit too hard and now he was paying the price. He tried to create a light atmosphere and get out of the whole mess.

"Tsunade-sama, think about this for a second..." Naruto stuttered. "You don't really want to kill me...you're just upset that you're so old." Tsunade's entire body tensed up. Shizune shook her head and sighed while Jiraiya was cracking up. The kid needed to learn to think before he talks.

Without saying another word, Tsunade walked over to where Naruto was sitting, picked him up by the cuff of his orange jacket, threw him over her shoulder and walked out into the street. Naruto tried valiantly to break free and run for freedom, but it wasn't going to happen. Tsunade had a death grip on his jacket.

Upon exiting the restaurant, Tsunade threw Naruto about twenty feet down the street. It was lunch time, so the streets were alive with the children once more, and people were going about their business. It held such an air of tranquility that Naruto lost himself for a moment. It probably would have lasted longer had Tsunade not punched a crater into the ground.

Tsunade slow rose up and released a bit of her chakra to let Naruto know who was the queen bee around here. All the townspeople ran indoors, grabbing the children and ushering them inside as well.

In less than a minute, the alive, thriving town had disappeared. Tsunade looked at Naruto, who was angry that she had turned the street into their battlefield. They could have clearly gone to the fields where ero-sennin taught him earlier. For disrupting this peaceful village and inciting a needless fear into the villagers, Tsunade was going to pay.

"Baa-chan," Naruto asked. "You could have beat me up outside of the town. Why did you do that?"

Tsunade was quickly getting tired of the way the little brat was addressing her. "I couldn't wait long enough to beat your head in," she replied.

Jiraiya and Shizune came out into the street to hear that last statement. Shizune gave one last attempt to save Naruto's well-being. "Tsunade-sama. Stop acting like a little child. Please stop this."

Tsunade answered her by lifting up her left pinky finger and spoke to Naruto. "I'm going to only use this finger to beat you down. I'm not going to need anything else. You can try whatever you want. I doubt you'll accomplish much," she finished with a grin.

Shizune was getting frustrated. These childish antics of her sensei were quickly growing old. "Tsunade-sama please--"

Her words got cut off as Naruto let out a scream and charged at Tsunade.

Naruto was fuming inside. She'd beat him with her left pinky finger? No one underestimated him and got away with it. He'd show her that not only would she have to use more than just one finger to beat him, she was going to lose if she tried.

He threw a right hook at Tsunade's face, which she quickly dodged by squatting, and threw her left pinky at his chin, lifting him off the ground. Naruto fell on his butt, and was slightly dazed from the hit. Wasting no time, Tsunade stood over him, and flicked his forehead protector with her left pinky, sending him thirty feet down the street.

Naruto slowly got up, dusting off some of the thicker patches of dirt that got on his jacket. Tsunade grinned, and egged him on some more. "I didn't think that this fight would be _this_ easy brat. With what Jiraiya was saying, I expected to have to use both pinky fingers against you. I have to say I'm sorely disappointed."

Naruto was incensed. A disappointment? She had some nerve to say that. If there was anything that he tried not to be, it was that. Ero-sennin was also watching this fight, and he wasn't going to let him down.

Naruto formed a hand seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

A smoke cloud formed to Naruto's right. Once it cleared up, the Naruto on the left was holding a blue ball of chakra while the Naruto on the right was disrupting the flow of the chakra in seemingly random places.

Shizune's eyes widened as she finally learned what jutsu Naruto had been working on. _The rasengan? The Yondaime's jutsu? Oh Tsunade-sama, why did you not ask him what he was working on? Of course he doesn't have the control to do the rasengan; elite jounin have trouble with it._ She was secretly glad that the jutsu he was learning was such a high level one; surely Tsunade-sama would recognize her errors and stop this stupid fight.

Tsunade on the other hand was shocked. 'The kid was learning _that_?' And not only that, what he had formed looked to be the real deal. It looked exactly a genuine rasengan. If it weren't for the fact that she knew it was an incomplete one, she would have been a little afraid. Well, performing a jutsu's one thing, and executing it's a whole another monster. She doubted that he could hit her even if he had managed to form a perfect one.

The Naruto on the right poofed out of existence. Naruto went full speed towards Tsunade with the intention of scoring a direct hit on her body.

When he got to within five feet of Tsunade, Naruto aimed the rasengan directly at her stomach, yelling "Rasengan!" Tsunade sighed. The kid had no sense of tactics whatsoever. A direct attack with no feints? No misdirection? It was as if he believed she was going to stand still and _let_ him hit her. You've got a _long_ way to go brat, if you ever want to be Hokage,' she mused.

Tsunade stepped to the left and caught his right arm, holding it away from her. The rasengan quickly dissipated.

Looking down at Naruto with a smirk, she was surprised to see him smiling. What's he smiling for?

"What are you so happy about, you little brat?"

Naruto wrenched his arm from her hand and said, "You used your entire hand. _Five fingers_."

Tsunade looked at her right hand, and was surprised. She had forgotten about her little declaration after seeing the brat form a real looking rasengan. She couldn't let him know that he won. She didn't have it in her to admit defeat.

Tsunade shrugged. "Eh, I was just being nice. I could have moved farther and dodged it all together. I just didn't want you tripping and hitting yourself with that thing. It would have been a bitch to heal."

Naruto nodded, secretly very pleased with himself for getting out of the fight without suffering too much damage to his ego and very little damage to his body. He was about to walk over to where Jiraiya and Shizune were standing when Tsunade turned towards Jiraiya.

"Jiraiya! Are you trying to teach this kid the Rasengan?! What's the point of teaching him this technique when he can't even master it? Filling his head with stupid dreams! To actually think that he'll become Hokage someday!" (1)

Naruto stopped moving. Jiraiya gave her a venomous glare. There was only so many times you can put someone down.

Shizune was simply stunned that Tsunade could be so cruel. She began to walk over to Naruto to reassure him when he abruptly turned around to look at Tsunade.

He gave her one of the biggest smiles he'd ever made.

"Okay, everyone else in history stunk it up trying to rasengan. So _what._ I'm not them. I'm me. Uzumaki Naruto. I won't know I can't do it unless I try. If I end not not being able to do it, well, I'll do what Kakashi-sensei did and make my own variation of it. But you're not stopping me from trying. No. _Way._" Naruto finished.

Tsunade almost smiled. The kid had more confidence than anyone she had ever met. He had scored some serious points with that comeback, and it dawned on her that the brat was slowly growing on her. It was impossible for her to not like anyone who resembled Nawaki and Dan to such an extent. _What can I do to help him..._

_Oh yea. I'll bet against him._

Tsunade grinned. This was so foolproof that it was genius.

"Okay brat, you want to make a bet?" Tsunade asked. Naruto was a little confused; this was not what he was expecting her to say.

"I'll bet that you can't learn the rasengan in...three months," she said, holding out three fingers. Naruto's eyes narrowed. _Three months? He'd been at learning the rasengan for over a month already. He didn't need three months!_

"...you'll buy me all the sake I want for a month." Tsunade said, grinning.

A feeling of dread came over Naruto. He didn't expect to lose the bet, but the mere idea of having to buy sake for Tsunade had him breaking out in a cold sweat.

Naruto reflexively shivered. If anything, he sure as heck was going to be motivated to learn the rasengan as soon as possible.

He closed his eyes and put his hands behind his head and asked her a question, "Oi baa-chan, what do **I** get when I learn the rasengan?" He opened his eyes to see Tsunade charging at him. He couldn't process what was happening fast enough, and before he knew it, she had him in a headlock.

'Again with the baa-chan.' Tsunade thought angrily. 'What the hell is wrong with this brat?'

Naruto was struggling against her for all he was worth. In other words, he got nowhere. She had him in a death grip and wasn't easing up in the least.

Hearing a lecherous giggle, Tsunade turned around to see Jiraiya writing furiously with the definition of 'perverted smile' on his face. Confused, she looked down at Naruto and realized that she was holding his head to her chest. Tsunade broke out in a faint blush, and was in the process of letting him go when Naruto stomped on her foot as hard as he could.

That did it. Any thoughts of letting him off evaporated into the hot summer day. She renewed her death grip on his head and broke out in delighted laughter when he heard his muffled screams of pain. She was a little surprised. Knowing Jiraiya, she thought the kid would be a full-blown pervert. As it was, the kid wasn't even breaking out in a nosebleed.

_So the kid's not a pervert eh? Let's see how far we can take this_. Giving Jiraiya a devious smile, she moved Naruto's head so that it was right in her cleavage. Jiraiya guffawed like a horse and proceeded to write even faster before the stimulation was too much and he broke out into a titanic nosebleed and passed out on the floor. Tsunade smiled. _Tsunade 1, Jiraiya 0._

Naruto realized that his situation had become even more dire. Instead of just having his face being flattened like it was earlier, now it was being crushed from the left, right, and middle. On top of that, someone turned out the lights. It was very dark where he was. Getting a little desperate, he moved his head in what few directions he could and began to fight against her even harder when he noticed a faint glint of light. He stopped moving his head around and tried to concentrate his eyes on where it came from. He found it again, and for whatever reason, couldn't stop looking at it.

When Tsunade felt Naruto go still, she wondered if the kid passed out. Letting him go to check if he was still conscious, she found that he was, but he still wasn't moving. Knowing rigor mortis takes more than half a day in this heat, she pushed him hard away from her.

Naruto was unprepared for the shove, and almost tripped on his own feet. He managed to stay on his two feet while never taking his eyes off that glint of light, which turned out to be a green stone that she was wearing as a necklace. He had no idea why he couldn't tear his gaze from the stone, and had even less of an idea why the stone had such power over him.

Tsunade noticed where his eyes were staring at and groaned. 'Sigh, I was wrong. The brat's been corrupted by Jiraiya. He's just a lot smarter in getting what he wants.'

Quickly getting sick of a little brat ogling her goodies, Tsunade decided to get him to stop by embarrassing him. "Hey brat," she began with a seductive smile. "Like what you see?" She gave him a wink for good measure.

Naruto realizing what part of her body the stone was at, was about to sputter out an apology when he realized her game. In the past month traveling with Jiraiya, Naruto had observed Jiraiya performing "research" a number of times. Over time, he came to a gradual understanding of how men and women tease each other.

He blew Tsunade the biggest raspberry he could, and said, "Who'd want to stare at your old, saggy, baa-chan breasts?" Shizune let out a gasp and put her hand over her mouth. Realizing that Naruto was about to meet Kami-sama, she offered the venerable Kami a quick prayer. _Kami-sama, please protect Naruto for the next ten seconds. He knows not the words he has just uttered and the wrath he has just unleashed..._

Tsunade's eyes were replaced by two blue pools of chakra, and she was radiating chakra from her body in such large amounts that Naruto briefly wondered if she had pulled a Rock Lee and opened a celestial gate. He didn't have to ponder for long, as Tsunade charged at him silently, her desire to kill him overpowering the immediate area.

Naruto felt it, but stood strong. When she was halfway to him, he asked a question out loud. "That stone, what is it?"

Tsunade was brought to a complete stop, her chakra and killing intent gone as soon as it erupted. Her shock was obvious in her body language and her surprise even more so in her tone of voice.

"What...stone....are you talking about."

Naruto didn't budge. "That green stone that you're wearing as a necklace."

Tsunade inwardly flinched. The stone was the last memoir she had of her grandfather, the Shodaime Hokage of Konoha. It's monetary worth could have supported a small village for years, and the sentimental value it held to her was above priceless.

She had gone to great lengths to hide it. The stone seemed perfectly complacent when she was wearing it, but the lure it held to others was great, and the last two people she let have it ended up being referred to as bodies within the year.

Tsunade shrugged, and dismissively said, "It's nothing brat. Nothing at all."

Naruto straightened out a bit, and gave her a smile. He was pleased at her response. "Well if it's nothing to you, baa-chan, when I master the rasengan, I want that." He pointed at the stone for emphasis.

Tsunade was shivering inside. The brat had no idea what he was asking of her. She had only given the stone to the two people she loved unconditionally with all her heart. And it broke her heart each time she had to claim it again from their lifeless bodies.

Outside, Tsunade was an emotionless statue. "No can do brat. This stone's worth a small fortune. You can bet that you'll master the rasengan, the karyuu endan, the Shiki Fuujin AND the Hiraishin in three months, and I won't take it." Tsunade thought this would stop the brat from asking again. After all, she threw three of the Yondaime's jutsu in there, and the kid always perked up when that man was mentioned.

Naruto was musing. He had no idea what the Shiki Fuujin or the Hiraishin were, but he knew the karyuu endan was the apex of fire jutsu. He had overheard Kakashi-sensei mentioning it to Sasuke. It created a massive flame in the shape of a dragon that seemed to have a mind of its own. The flames were several times more intense than the fireball Sasuke could already form, and required a very high affinity with fire, whatever the heck that meant.

In other words, he had no shot of learning the karyuu endan, which meant he couldn't win that stone as a prize. Given the way she mentioned all four techniques, he figured that there was **nothing** he could bet to learn in three months and have her accept. Naruto then suddenly perked up.

Two words in that statement were the key. _Three months_. What if he offered to learn even just the rasengan in a much shorter time span? It didn't have to be impossible by any means, he just had to make her think that it was impossible. After all, she thought three months was impossible, because she dictated that term to him when she made the bet. 'Huh,' Naruto mused. 'When did I get so smart?'

Naruto began his attack to get Tsunade to agree. "Oi, baa-chan." Tsunade shot him a look that promised death by castration. "I'll bet that I can learn the rasengan in...one week, if you bet that necklace. Also, if you bet it and I lose, I'll buy you twice the sake for twice as long."

Tsunade couldn't stop the surprise from showing up on her face. _One week? _Given where he was at the moment, mastering the rasengan in a week _was_ impossible. You can't just suddenly wake up one day and control chakra. She knew. She tried. REALLY hard, in fact. It hurt her a lot when she failed. She still winced when she recalled trying to hold one hundred leaves to her body while running up and down a tree that she had doused in water. Oh, she also tried to do it blindfolded, being told from Jiraiya that practicing tree climbing while being blindfolded greatly improves your control.

What happened that day was that she lost half the leaves before she even got to the tree, and she couldn't sense where the tree was. She ran face-first into the tree, ruining her clothes and cutting up her face.

In the end, the lesson learned was that chakra control is something gained over a long period of time. Not one week. It was impossible for him to master it in a week. It wasn't even her opinion; it was just a fact.

With that knowledge in mind, Tsunade agreed to the bet. What she didn't realize was that she was subconsciously throwing her heart out there one last time. "Okay Naruto. If you learn the rasengan in one week, I'll give you my grandfather's necklace."

_It was her grandfather's?_ Oh well. Naruto didn't really care at the moment as he jumped for joy. He had convinced Tsunade to bet the necklace. Still, one week was a pretty harsh deadline. He looked at Jiraiya and said, "I'm going to go practice it. I only have one week! That's not a lot of time."

Jiraiya had just woken up from his stupor and caught the last bits of the conversation. He didn't know what Tsunade has bet, but he didn't really care. He nodded, and Naruto broke out into a full-blown sprint towards where he had practiced earlier in the day. Jiraiya decided that the kid was probably better off trying to figure out chakra control on his own, and went back into the restaurant. After all, he still had to finish writing what he started. Tsunade saw this, and proceeded to follow Jiraiya.

Shizune looked at Naruto quickly disappearing into the fields, and at the two sannin making their way into the restaurant to get drunk. As Tsunade walked back into the restaurant, the village came back to life.

Shizune then wondered what she was going to do. She did know that the last thing she wanted to do was follow Tsunade back into the restaurant. Being with Tsunade does things to you, and getting sick of the smell of sake is one of them. Deciding that she wouldn't be able to tolerate the smell of sake so early in the day, she dropped Tonton off with Tsunade and began running towards Naruto.

Looking back to see Shizune running to Naruto, Tsunade chuckled. _Help him all you want Shizune. I'm going to enjoy my sake._

"Shizune-chan, do know what I'm doing wrong?" Naruto asked, frustrated out of his mind. He'd been at practicing the rasengan for over an hour, and didn't feel like he had made any progress."

Shizune pondered her answer. She knew that he really wasn't doing anything wrong. It was just that his chakra control was woefully inept to hold what he could already form in place.

"I don't think you're doing anything wrong, Naruto-kun," Shizune began. "I just think it's, as Tsunade-sama said, your lack of chakra control. You're having trouble keeping the second step rasengan you form stay in a perfect sphere. Because of that, any thin layer of chakra you produce to perfect the third step and master the rasengan is instantly broken.

Naruto sighed. The rasengan truly was an incredibly difficult jutsu. To even do the first step, a ninja had to have sufficient chakra control to swirl around an amount of chakra in enough different directions. While maintaining a spherical shape. Many people can't even do that, as they either don't have the chakra control or the chakra capacity to practice it enough to get it down. If you get past the first step, you then had to pump a lot of chakra into it for power, making control and capacity an even bigger issue. While maintaining a spherical shape. Then the last step was to create a thin layer of chakra that held the entire thing together, keeping the power inside. The spherical shape is emphasized in the final step more than ever, as even a small mistake in the shape at some point would burst the layer of chakra holding the swirling chakra together.

Naruto's demeanor instantly became bright when he went over everything that made the rasengan so difficult to learn. He knew that when he mastered it, he'd have at least chunin level chakra control, if not more, and that he'd have a really powerful jutsu in his arsenal.

That said, he again reached an impasse in his training, but this time, ero-sennin wasn't around to help him out. Shizune was though, and from what he remembered, she was a prodigy at chakra control. He figured that she might be able to point something out to him that might help him out. And even if she didn't, he liked talking to her.

"Shizune-chan? What should I do differently to learn this jutsu? I don't think I'm going to learn it by doing what I did for the past hour for another week." Naruto asked her.

Shizune for her part had already been mulling over what Naruto could do for the past twenty minutes, and she had come up with a pretty good solution, if she did say so herself.

"Naruto-kun, why don't you try to form a smaller rasengan first?" Shizune asked him. Naruto looked a question at her. He had no idea where she was going with this.

Shizune smiled at his confusion and began to clarify things for him. "See, it's like this Naruto-kun. When you're a baby, do you instantly learn how to run?" Naruto shook his head. Of course not. Babies can't run. They can't even walk. They first learn how to crawl. Then walk. Then..._Oh..._

Shizune continued on, though she saw the light dawn on his eyes. "No they don't. They first learn how to crawl. Then when they master crawling, they learn how to walk. Once the master how to walk, then they begin to learn how to run. So what I'm suggesting is for you to create a smaller rasengan first. If you can do that, then gradually put more and more chakra into it, until you can create a normal sized rasengan, mastering the jutsu." Shizune finished on a high note.

Naruto came to that conclusion before she finished, and he had already tried to create a smaller rasengan than before. To his horror, he found that this was proving to be even more difficult for him than the normal sized one.

Naruto was quickly becoming frantic. The prospect of wasting all that money on Tsunade's sake was quickly becoming a reality, and he was scared for Gama-chan's well-being. "Shizune-chan, I'm having even more trouble with the smaller one. What's going onnnn!!!" Naruto finished, unable to stand still.

Shizune was stumped. The rasengan ate up quite a bit of chakra. There was no reason for him to have even more trouble with a smaller one than he did with a normal sized one.

When Naruto began nagging at her again, Shizune became a little frustrated herself, and snapped back at Naruto, "Then try making a really big one and work your way down!"

It wasn't in a harsh tone, but that was the first time she had ever raised her voice at Naruto. She immediately regretted doing so, and tried to apologize to him, who had turned his back on her.

She slowly began to walk over to him, saying, "I'm...sorry Naruto-kun. I didn't mean to snap back at you. It's just that, well, I really want you to learn this jutsu...and prove Tsunade-sama wrong!" She finished in a determined tone.

Naruto's answer was to summon a kage bunshin, and create a rasengan far bigger than what he had been creating before. Shizune was in awe at the sheer amount of chakra Naruto seemed to have. Her awe quickly turned to joy as she noticed that this rasengan was far more spherical than what he had produced before, and the shaped seemed to be much more stable. When Naruto finally performed the third step on it, he had managed to keep the shape for a whole three seconds before the rasengan destabilized and died out.

The kage bunshin poofed out of existence, leaving an exhausted Naruto panting for breath. He had put quite a bit of chakra in that rasengan, but it wasn't any more than what he needed to create fifty kage bunshin, which he normally can do without even breaking a sweat. What tired him out was the amount of concentrating he had to do to keep the rasengan together. It took a lot out of him and his head was hurting from concentrating too hard.

Mistaking his panting as chakra exhaustion, Shizune quickly rushed over to Naruto. "Naruto-kun, are you okay? Are you feeling chakra exhaustion?" She was very concerned for his health, as chakra exhaustion could knock people out for weeks, and made no attempt to keep the worry out of her voice.

Naruto turned around to see Shizune's face making a worried look on his behalf. He was touched that she was worrying about him so much. He didn't want her to worry, but to have someone concern themselves with your well-being was truly a pleasant feeling. His mental exhaustion more or less gone, he jumped up and started skipping around her with a huge smile on his face, yelling "Yatta!" each time he landed.

Shizune was startled when he shot up, but quickly relaxed when she saw that it wasn't chakra exhaustion. She couldn't keep a smile out of her face after seeing how happy he was.

Naruto then yelled to her, "Shizune-chan you were right! I just have to create huge rasengans and work my way down to a normal one! You were right, you were right you were right!" Naruto exclaimed as he began to skip around her even faster. He didn't keep that up for long, however, as he landed after one particular skip, he shot towards Shizune and enveloped her in a bear hug.

Shizune jumped a little in surprise. Naruto was short for his age, so he only came up to her shoulders. Her thoughts quickly faded from how tall he was to how much she was enjoying the hug. It had been over fourteen years since her uncle last hugged her. Tsunade wasn't much for physical contact outside of causing bodily harm to others. Traveling around with Tsunade meant that she couldn't date. In other words, human contact was a very scarce thing in her life, let alone a hug with as much contact as the one Naruto was currently giving her. She could feel the strength of his body through how strong the hug was. But most importantly, she felt his warmth. The body heat of another person. It was such a warm and pleasant feeling. Wanting more contact, and to applaud his progress, Shizune gave him a little hug back.

Naruto felt her hug him back, and it triggered a feeling that he never felt before. He just knew that from this point on, he would always do his best to make Shizune happy. That smile she made when he was skipping around her was something he wanted to put on her face every second she was around him. That smile full of mirth and affection, without any trace of deception.

Letting her go, Naruto grinned sheepishly at Shizune. "Sorry about that Shizune-chan," he said as he rubbed the back of his head with his hand.

Shizune smiled back in response and let him know she didn't mind. "It's alright Naruto-kun, it's not like I was offended or anything by it. In fact, I got the feeling that you really liked hugging me, with how strong your hug was and all," she finished, teasing him. Naruto blushed turned his face away from her to hide his embarrassment.

Shizune then decided to probe. "So Naruto-kun, did you like hugging me?" Naruto, still looking away, tentatively nodded. Shizune mentally grinned. _So he liked it too huh? I'm...glad._ "Well I'll tell you what. If you master the rasengan in a week, I'll give you a hug Naruto-kun. How's that sound?"

Naruto's face broke into a huge smile. "You really mean that Shizune-chan!" He asked of her. He looked like he was having trouble staying still long enough for her answer. 'He probably wants to jump around again'. Shizune thought, laughing at the mental image. When she nodded, Naruto did a single jump while yelling "whoohoo!" in celebration before landing and quickly running away from her. When she asked him what he was doing, he looked back at her and yelled, "I need to master the rasengan faster than ever now! I'm going to train all day and all night! Just you wait Shizune-chan! I'll have it mastered before the week ends! You can count on it!"

Shizune chuckled before she walked over to under a tree to watch him practice. She was still in awe at his seemingly limitless stamina. How he could produce rasengan after rasengan that big and practice control was beyond her. It broke the rules of chakra and nature as she knew it.

Then she looked at his eyes, full of determination and vigor. She thought that his eyes were quite comely with that glint. Shaking her head, she proceeded to stop that train of thought.

As time went on, Naruto was training every bit as hard as when he began, if not harder. Shizune began to notice the muscle definition on his arms, and the few times he failed to keep the rasengan under control, the following explosion kicked up a sizable gust of wind, revealing his stomach for seconds at a time. From the few times she saw it, she noticed that it had quite a bit of definition for a twelve year old. However, each time she thought that, she looked at her face, and reminded herself that he was only twelve. His face still had a bit of baby fat left, and it added to his childish personality.

As Naruto finished his second hour of training, Shizune began to doze off. It amused her that he seemed to show no signs of fatigue after two strenuous hours of training where she was struggling to stay awake from just watching him. Her eyelids were slowly becoming heavier and heavier, as sleep threatened to overcome her. Before she did give in, she thought of Naruto in a couple years, without the baby fat, and much taller than he is now. The picture of him in her mind was a very attractive young man who had her in a very warm hug. He was taller than she was by a head; now she was the one resting her head on his shoulder during the hug. Her imaginary Naruto had a very toned body, and he somehow instantly lost his shirt during the hug. She broke the hug and stared. And stared.

Performing the first lecherous smile of her life, Shizune drifted off into sleep, fantasizing about a future Naruto that would hold her as warmly as she would hold him.

"...Shizune-chan, wake up. Shizune-chan!"

Shizune groggily woke up. Wiping her eyes with her hands, she opened them to see Naruto's face right in front of her. She jumped back a little in surprise, hitting the tree she slept on with her head.

As Shizune yelped in pain and massaged the sore spot on her head, Naruto laughed and sat down next to her. She felt his body heat radiating from him, and noticed a subtle desire to get closer. Seeing no reason not to, she moved to him until his arm was touching hers.

To her delight, Naruto didn't flinch, or move away from her. If anything, he relaxed into her arm, giving her a warm feeling inside. When Naruto let out a yawn, she was surprised that he tired himself out. Then she took a look at her surroundings.

The sun was setting in the horizon, over a distant mountain that she couldn't remember the name of. She surmised that he trained for roughly seven to eight hours straight, which was, for lack of a better word, insane. She was surprised at how much stamina Naruto really seemed to have. Then again, she shouldn't have been surprised. She was beginning to realize that Naruto was a surprising person. He had surprised her with his spontaneous hug, and he surprised her again with how long he trained. 'Was it for the necklace or the hug, Naruto-kun' she wondered.

Suddenly feeling a weight on her shoulder, Shizune turned around to see Naruto's head on it. He had fallen asleep on her shoulder. 'He's probably exhausted from training so hard for so long' Shizune thought. She looked at Naruto's face. He had his mouth closed in a serene smile, and he was breathing softly. He took off the hitai-te at some point during his training, as it was in his hand. It revealed his entire face to her. She loved how his whiskers seemed to wiggle each time he took a breath. She carefully moved her other arm to touch one, upon which he grimaced, made a face, and went back to sleeping normally. She thought that was the cutest thing she ever saw, and found it very difficult to resist the impulse to do it again.

Looking at the sun setting in the distance, she realized she had found a moment of peace in her otherwise busy, wandering life. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, reveling in the moment, and doing her best to fixate it permanently into her memory.

After she believed she had done so, she looked at Naruto again, and realized that she too was still quite tired. Making herself comfortable as best she can without bothering Naruto, Shizune put her head on his and began to doze off, the two of them keeping each other warm with their respective body heats. She figured his body heat would keep her warm enough to stay out here for a couple hours before they had to go back to town to rest up for tomorrow.

Shizune perked up at that thought. Tomorrow. Tomorrow would be the day Orochimaru asked Tsunade-sama to give her decision on whether she would heal his arms or not. She was worried only for a second though, as she knew Tsunade-sama would refuse Orochimaru's request. 'And then what?' She thought. 'Would Tsunade-sama go back to Konoha? Probably not. She'd just continue to wander aimlessly throughout the continent, and Jiraiya-sama and Naruto-kun would go back to Konoha.' Her heart ached at the latter. She would continue to follow Tsunade-sama, and Naruto-kun would go back to Konoha. This was really the last time that she had to be with him. Blinking back a few tears, she decided that all she could do was enjoy the time she had left with him, and proceeded to rest her head on Naruto's again. She decided that it was awfully comfortable; far more than a pillow was. 'I wonder if they sell Naruto-kun pillows at Konoha,' she thought to herself, giggling at the thought.

She got all the laughs she could, because she was sure there weren't going to be many tomorrow.

* * *

On a wide field, green as far as the eyes can see, two men stood facing two women. Only thirty feet separated the two groups. The sun stood high over them all, bearing witness to the meeting.

"So do you have the bodies ready, Tsunade?" Orochimaru asked.

Tsunade in response pulled out a scroll, and performed a hand sign. A small cloud of smoke appeared, and two bodies fell onto the ground. Shizune gasped in utter horror. _The drunks from two days ago?_

"Ku ku ku, I knew you would do it Tsunade, I knew it!" Orochimaru exclaimed, extremely pleased that he read her correctly. "Let us conduct the exchange like we would prisoners. Tsunade. Bring the bodies halfway. I will then bring Nawaki and Dan back, and you will heal my arms. Is this to your satisfaction?"

Tsunade in response picked up the bodies, and proceeded to head over there.

Shizune was stunned. This wasn't happening. "Tsunade-sama, how could you! You said you weren't going to do this! Even if he brings them back, it won't be them. It won't be _them_ Tsunade-sama! Please don't do this! You'll regret this for the rest of your life if you do. Please DON'T _DO_ THIS TSUNADE-SAMA!" Shizune yelled with tears beginning to form in her eyes.

Tsunade did not respond to Shizune's cries. She just carried the bodies to the halfway point, dropped them, and walked back to Shizune without uttering a single word.

Shizune was on her knees crying silently by the time Tsunade made it back. Her mind was refusing to accept what was going on. Tsunade looked at Shizune, who looked back at her pleadingly. Tsunade's facial expression remained impassive, as she turned to Orochimaru and uttered her first words. "Get on with it," she said tersely.

Orochimaru grin got even wider. "Tsunade-hime...you're fighting with yourself inside aren't you?" Tsunade's eyes narrowed in response. "Ku ku ku...do not worry. You are making the right decision. I knew you would," Orochimaru said as he and Kabuto began to walk to the two laid out bodies.

Tsunade's face went back to the impassive expression she had at the beginning. Shizune realized that Orochimaru was walking over to the bodies, and prepared her senbons to kill him. She lined up her first shot and proceeded to fire...when Tsunade stepped in front of her.

Shizune, from the shock more than anything else, stopped her shot. Tsunade looked over her shoulder at Shizune and said quietly, "I want to see them."

That was it. Shizune couldn't take it anymore. No longer having the strength to hold her tears back, she began weeping uncontrollably. She bent down even further, covering her face with her hands, refusing to accept what was going to happen.

Orochimaru stood directly in front of the bodies, and Kabuto, using Orochimaru's chakra, began to perform the kinjutsu required to bring back Nawaki and Dan. When he completed the last hand sign, he yelled "Edo Tensei!", and put his hand on the ground. Nothing happened.

A quick breeze went by as Tsunade allowed herself a small smile.

The corpses exploded.

**AU: **I wanted to get to the sannin fight and have a Naruto/Shizune scene, and this was what I came up with. Next chapter will be the sannin fight. It won't be canonical. I'm not sure how long I'll take, because I want to plan it out with some detail.

As always, reviews are most welcome. I haven't had a single flame yet, which somewhat surprised me. However, don't feel obligated to be the first.

Please forgive idiotic grammar mistakes. I'm uploading this chapter at three in the morning, and just spent four hours working on it after getting home at nine at night.

(1): Quoted directly from what Tsunade says in the anime.


	5. Chapter 5

Hello everyone. I haven't abandoned this sorry excuse of a FF, and I probably won't. I just suck at updating.

Just busy with a lot of things going on in life. It's mostly finished now, so shall try to update a bit more often than once every six weeks.

I made a mistake with that AN at the bottom of chapter 4. EPIC fail on my part. Yes, Orochimaru and Kabuto are alive...ugh. I will not do that again. Editing is so boring that if spell check doesn't catch it, you don't either.

Shall keep the rant to a minimum this time. Time to read about people trying to kill each other.

Oh yeah, moving the rating up to 'M'. I just felt it necessary to do so.

* * *

The wind was taking its time to clear the smoke. Or Orochimaru was trying to keep himself hidden. Either way, Tsunade was getting bored and wanted this sped up.

She was mentally going through Orochimaru's repertoire of jutsu when she heard a faint laughter behind her. Remembering that she wasn't alone, she turned back to gaze upon Shizune's stupefied facial expression. Shizune looked like she had just seen a shinigami offer her candy. **(Remember kids: Never take candy from strangers. Though it is said that strangers have the best candy...)**

Tsunade chuckled at her apprentice/best friend's expression. "Cool, huh?"

Shizune looked up at Tsunade, beaming. "Tsunade-sama, what was that?"

Tsunade chuckled. The jutsu was A-rank, but only because it needed so much chakra, and it was a little volatile. "**Bunshin Daibakuha no jutsu.**" (Exploding Shadow Clone)

Shaking her head, Shizune got up to stand besides her master, teacher, and lifelong friend, Orochimaru slithered out of the smoke, his clothing torn in various places. Tsunade smirked as she got a good look at his face. She couldn't remember the last time Orochimaru showed such a vivid facial expression. He was seething in anger. She was seething in mirth.

"Tsunade-hime. I was serious about having my arms healed. I never threatened you or anyone close to you to have it done. I did nothing that would have gave you cause to deny my request. I was, as you put it during our years in Konoha, "honest and loyal". For one with the history you have, who praised those who were _honest and loyal_, those who never told a lie, those who never turned on a comrade...for this to happen...from _you_ of all people..."

Orochimaru paused and took a deep breath. Tsunade was unnerved. Orochimaru was never this emotional. Something was wrong.

Recollecting himself, the snake sannin chuckled. He looked at the sky, then the fields around him, then at Tsunade. He gave her a small smile that reminded her of years long past, when she was a squeaky little fangirl of the genius of her class.

That smile quickly turned into a vicious snarl as Orochimaru let loose his desire to kill. Tsunade and Shizune were not ready for the sudden change in his demeanor and flinched, momentarily caught off guard. Realizing this, Orochimaru seized his advantage and prepared to make the first strike. As he charged at her, he got the final word in, laughing while doing so.

"**What utter hypocrisy, you self-serving whore!**"

* * *

Kabuto blinked. It was time.

* * *

The words had shocked Tsunade into a momentary standstill, very similar to how she reacts to blood. Orochimaru drew Kusanagi from...wherever he keeps it...and lunged for Tsunade's heart.

When he was within ten steps of her, she looked at his face, her eyes on his. Orochimaru broke out into a bigger smile while Tsunade simply looked back at the ground.

Five steps from her, Orochimaru inwardly chuckled at how easy this was.

Four steps from her, he wondered if she had set up another trap.

Three steps from her, he decided she hadn't. Kabuto wasn't moving.

Two steps from her, he briefly sensed someone move from Tsunade's right, but he disregarded it as irrelevant. His eyes were entirely focused on Tsunade's chest and the blood that would spurt from it not even ten seconds from now. Looking at how voluminous her chest was, he thought of his teammate Jiraiya, and how the buffoon would attempt revenge not because he killed Tsunade, but because he killed Tsunade's breasts. _Such an idiot..._

One step from her, he noticed that she closed her eyes. She knew she was going to die. She had resigned herself to it. There was nothing she could do. Orochimaru felt a level of ecstasy higher than what he felt after watching Sarutobi die. This time he was going to deliver the killing blow, and watch the life ebb out of her eyes.

Standing right in front of her, Orochimaru leveled his head with hers and proceeded to decapitate her. He'd leave the breasts intact for Jiraiya's sake. Maybe the idiot wouldn't be as inspired in his revenge. 'Or he might not even try to avenge her if he has her breasts,' Orochimaru jokingly thought.

Finishing the backswing, Orochimaru went for the kill. He closed his eyes, wanting to experience her skin give way to his blade and the sound of her head falling on the ground to the fullest. After all, it's said that closing your eyes improves the other senses.

So it was a slight shock to him that he felt...nothing.

Opening his eyes, he saw his blade centimeters from Tsunade's neck. Angry, he tried to just kill her, his senses be damned. But his body would not move. Orochimaru stopped his attempts to kill Tsunade briefly to test something.

He willed his body to move, and it did not.

Where other men might have freaked, or lost their cool, Orochimaru did not. He was a genius after all. He quickly went through what could have triggered this paralysis.

_A genjutsu is the most probable to have caused this. And yet..._ Orochimaru mentally shook his head. _No, I would have seen it coming, and if not, I would have felt the chakra release at the very least. The next highest possibility is...poison..._

Orochimaru looked down as far as his eyes would allow, and saw many senbon sticking out from his arms, just below the shoulder.

He couldn't remember for the love of Kami-sama when he was hit, or even what hit him. As he went through his memories, a young woman in a black kimono stepped into his line of sight.

Orochimaru snarled. He could still make facial expressions. _So it was Tsunade's little bitch that did this to me._ "Heh," Orochimaru chuckled. _The wench's chakra levels are so pathetically small that I couldn't even detect her moving._

Still. He had to give her credit. She won this round. Orochimaru sighed. Tsunade's death, it would seem, would have to wait just a bit longer.

Shizune glared back at the snake sannin. Inwardly, she was breathing a huge sigh of relief. She had made it just in time. She was also pleased with herself. Not many people can subdue Orochimaru.

Shizune saw Orochimaru trying to move his body to no avail. She smirked. His frustration brought her joy.

Her master's pain brought her anger.

Something was amiss.

Shizune looked for signs of poisoning on Tsunade's body. To her frustration, she found nothing. As Shizune mulled over what else could have affected her master...

* * *

"Ah-choo!" Kabuto sneezed. _Oh crap..._

To sneeze forces the body to close the eyes. When Kabuto did so, his concentration broke on the jutsu he was performing. He could recover the jutsu with hardly any effort, but someone with high chakra control would know what was going on. He hoped the girl traveling with Tsunade was not highly talented in genjutsu. He looked at her to see if she had noticed.

Upon doing so, Kabuto was surprised. The girl---no, _woman_, was _much_ more pleasing to his eyes than what he remembered. It had to be the slight look of desperation on her face. But yes, she was quite the looker. He gave her entire body a quick glance. He unconsciously licked his lips. What he saw pleased him.

* * *

Shizune's head turned quickly as she detected a faint pulse of chakra. The chakra was thin, so thin that she wouldn't have found it even if she were looking for it. But she knew where it was, and its path was obvious. She traced it back to her master to discover the traces of a jutsu. The chakra signature was synonymous with...

Shizune blinked.

_**Genjutsu**_

Her master was caught in a genjutsu. Shizune mental facepalmed. That explained everything. Orochimaru's words, while harsh and completely untrue, should not have had the effect that they did. She proceeded to release Tsunade from the genjutsu when Orochimaru called out to her.

"You..._bitch_. What did you do to me. How did you hit me without having me notice."

Shizune's replied with a smile. Brilliant as he was, Orochimaru was, for lack of a better word, an idiot in everything outside ninjutsu. However, she figured he would have a better knowledge of the human anatomy (the man was trying to become immortal).

"I threw my senbon right below your shoulders, on the lowest part of the deltoid muscle. You didn't feel the attack, because that section of your arm was sealed off by Sandaime-sama, and the nerve cells were dead. However, blood still flows to the arm, and the poison on the senbon tips quickly spread throughout your body, paralyzing you almost instantaneously," Shizune finished with a flourish.

Orochimaru smiled. He had already discovered much about this poison. It is more for capturing purposes, as it did not paralyze his vital organs. It basically restricted all dimensions of motion, nothing else.

Orochimaru blinked. There was no way the girl overlooked this. He tried to mold chakra. He found that he could. Orochimaru chuckled. The poison didn't paralyze the chakra system, a basic necessity of all poisons. _Foolish girl..._

Shizune felt a shiver course through her. "What do you have to laugh about?" She asked Orochimaru.

Orochimaru had already set up his escape, and was going to, but then the girl opened her mouth. He decided to humor her.

"Well, Shizune-_chan_," Shizune flinched. "You're not really trying to _capture_ me...are you?"

Shizune recoiled as she knew he had seen through her poison. Before she could react, Orochimaru melted into a puddle of mud. Shizune knew her advantage was gone. She turned to look at Tsunade. Tsunade still stared blankly where 'Orochimaru' stood.

Shizune jumped back, put a hand on the back of Tsunade's head, and yelled, "KAI!"

* * *

Kabuto sighed. The game was up. However, he found himself pleased that she had discovered his error. This proved her to be intelligent, and not a stupid ditz or even worse, (Kabuto gulped), a _fangirl._

He canceled his jutsu, and proceeded to make his way to his master. While doing so, Kabuto noticed his hands were trembling. He smiled. He would not be made to wait much longer to have his hands on her body.

* * *

The life came back to Tsunade's eyes as she looked around for who just yelled. Tsunade was only looking right in front of her, and it didn't dawn on her to look behind her.

Shizune laughed at her master's confusion and softly tapped her shoulder to let her know who it was.

Tsunade flinched and did a quick 180, ready to strike, when she noticed it was Shizune.

Shizune chuckled as she softly said, "Welcome back, Tsunade-sama."

Tsunade relaxed a little, but was still confused. There were some gaps in her memory that she couldn't account for. In fact, she couldn't recall anything after Orochimaru charged at her. She tensed up. Orochimaru. _Where is that snake?_

Shizune, noticing Tsunade's tension, quickly let her know what happened to her. "It was a genjutsu, Tsunade-sama. I--"

The ground exploded from beneath them as Orochimaru shot out of the earth like a missile and stabbed Tsunade in the shoulder. He proceeded to cut his way through her body when Tsunade jumped backwards, freeing herself.

Shizune watched the entire exchange in shock. The exchange occurred too quickly, and she had completely forgotten about Orochimaru after Tsunade was released from the genjutsu. A genin-level mistake, to forget about your opponent in the midst of a fight, but Shizune was more of a healer, and had very little front line combat experience.

Tsunade wrapped Shizune with her right arm and jumped back several times. After putting a good fifty meters between herself and Orochimaru, she chanced a glance back. Orochimaru wasn't even looking at her; he was looking the other way. She realized that he was looking at his underling, the glasses kid, run towards him. _Good. This'll give me enough time to heal and plan something out._

Tsunade knew that the wound would require quite a bit of chakra to heal. She figured that she would need everything she had against Orochimaru, and Shizune wasn't much of a melee fighter.

A match made in heaven.

"Shizune, heal my shoulder for me," Tsunade ordered.

Her mind back together, Shizune quickly did as ordered and performed the shosenjutsu on her master's shoulder. The wound was quickly closing. Shizune noticed with a sigh that Tsunade would not look at the blood flowing out of her shoulder.

Tsunade wasn't looking elsewhere for that reason, however. She just saw the glasses kid meet up with Orochimaru, and prepare a chakra scalpel. That was a good and bad thing. It meant the kid was a medic, so he had high chakra control and a high understanding of the vital points of the human body. It also meant that Shizune would be a match for him.

She saw the kid perform what was most likely an anti-toxin jutsu. She saw to her regret Orochimaru breaking free of his paralysis. He must have attacked her with another stupid mud clone.

Kabuto was done in no time. The poison, while potent, was far from lethal and far too slow acting.

Shizune finished healing Tsunade's shoulder as Orochimaru readied Kusanagi once more and charged at them. Kabuto followed closely behind, chakra scalpel at the ready.

Standing up, Tsunade removed her green jacket and threw it over her shoulder. The jacket floated harmlessly on to the ground. As it landed, the sleeves crossed over the middle, covering up the 'sucker' on the back.

Drawing a large amount of chakra to her right hand, she got into a defensive stance and addressed her student.

"Shizune. Take the four-eyes. I have a snake to hunt."

* * *

Sunlight fell on Naruto's eyes, waking him from his peaceful sleep. Groaning, he pulled himself into an upright position to find himself on a bed.

He did not remember falling asleep on a bed, let alone getting back to the inn. The last thing he remembered was making a huge breakthrough in the rasengan. He couldn't duplicate the rasengan ero-sennin could make, and he still needed a kage bunshin to create it, but he had managed to create something that was definitely battle ready and was easy to make.

But for the life of him he could not remember how he got back to the inn.

Curiosity soon turned into frustration. Naruto began stomping the ground before sitting Indian style on the bed in the classic thinking pose before headbutting the wall. When these three failed, he tried to fit his hand into his mouth because Sasuke told him doing so would greatly increase his intelligence and memory.

Naruto found that his hand was a lot bigger than his mouth. Try as he might, the accursed hand would not fit in his supposedly big mouth. The Sasuke Fangirl Association (SFA for short) had told him many times to shut his big mouth.

So if his mouth was big, why wouldn't his hand fit? Or was it that he was doomed to be dumb forever?

_Or_, Naruto decided, it was just that he had really big hands.

Sasuke could probably do it because his hands were so puny. _Hehehe...._

Naruto couldn't hold back a grin. He remembered what ero-sennin said hand size being proportional to a certain other part of a male body. However, this meant that guys with big...you know, are, _well_, **stupid**.

Set to prove this wrong, Naruto became more determined than ever to fit his hand into his mouth. before his face became a visage of pain.

His jaw hath cramped.

Howling in pain, Naruto began jumping around the room again furiously trying to knock his jaw back into place, his attempts at improving his cranial abilities forgotten. Tightly shutting his eyes in an attempt to reduce the pain, Naruto lost sight of where he was jumping around. He knocked over a lamp that got tangled up in the curtains, consequently getting redirected and landing viciously on a small round dining table before rolling off it and landing with a loud 'THUD' in front of a chair, which triggered a loud 'SQUEAL' sound.

Now everything made sense except for the 'squeal'. Naruto finally got his face back together and looked for what made the abnormal sound. He laid down on the ground to see what was under the chair when Tonton came running out from under it.

Getting up into a sitting position, Naruto picked up Tonton and put her on his lap before beginning to wonder how Tonton got here. This one wasn't as hard to figure out as how he got here. It was either baa-chan or Shizune-chan, and he was around only one of them before mysteriously finding himself here.

Shizune.

Shizune had probably carried him back to his room. Naruto felt a warmth spread throughout his body from his chest after visualizing Shizune carrying him from the training field to the inn, taking him up to his room, and tucking him in for the night.

Then his thoughts strayed to what happened yesterday.

He smiled as he remembered the afternoon he shared with her. She had helped him enormously by teaching him the basic theories of chakra control, and provided moral support by simply being there. She was also the one who provided him with the brilliant idea of learning how to make a large rasengan and working his way down. No doubt about it, Shizune was a genius. _I mean who else would have thought of that?_

Then he remembered the hug he gave her as thanks for everything she did, and how she hugged him back. He leaned back, closed his eyes, and smiled. That memory was definitely one he'd keep for all time. He remembered how warm the hug was, and how he just felt so safe with her, and how even with all the crap that was going on in his life, for that one moment, he forgot all of it, and focused only on her. He remembered hugging her tighter and tighter, because he wanted to do more, to really show her how thankful he was.

Looking up at the clock, Naruto saw that it was getting to be late in the morning. He sighed out in displeasure; he would have enjoyed reliving that memory for a couple more minutes. At the very least.

Cradling Tonton exactly like he remembered Shizune doing so, Naruto proceeded to leave his room. When he got to the door, he took a look back. The room looked like a S-rank fuuton jutsu was used on it. The curtains were torn up, the bedsheets were on the ground, both lamps in the room were broken, and the lampshade on one of them looked like it went through hell and back.

Naruto sighed as he fished around in his pocket for Gama-chan. He'd have to leave a sizable tip to please the maids to clean this one up.

* * *

Entering the lobby, Naruto was immediately called for by Jiraiya, who was enjoying a cup of tea at a table. Naruto began to walk over to him, when he noticed the table was empty except for that cup of tea. This made Naruto frown. And angry. _That ero-sennin better have some ramen._

Arriving at the table, Naruto set Tonton down on the ground. Naruto noticed that ero-sennin had remembered to get Tonton's breakfast, as there was a bowl of pig feed or whatever it is pigs eat for breakfast on the ground.

This further angered the young blond Jinchuuriki, and he let the idiot ero-sennin know it.

"Oi, ero-sennin. You remember to get breakfast for baa-chan's pig, but you forget me?" Naruto not so quietly asked the toad sennin. "Honestly, come on. What the hell?"

Jiraiya didn't miss a beat. To be honest, he was sort of disappointed in Naruto.

"Naruto. Smell the table."

Naruto was confused, but decided to humor his ero-sennin, and so he did. He could smell miso ramen, but when he looked at the table, it wasn't there. Realizing this was a test, Naruto put his hands together and said, "KAI!" The genjutsu that shrouded his miso ramen was dissipated and Naruto happily dug in.

Jiraiya wanted a lesson learned out of all this, and knew the best way to teach it.

"Naruto. Next time I do this, I expect you to recognize the genjutsu and remove it without my prompting for you to do so. If you don't, I'll eat your miso ramen in front of you. Understand?"

Naruto hurriedly nodded, which was a mistake to do with all the food in his mouth. He began choking, eliciting laughs from Jiraiya, who hit Naruto in the back a couple of times.

Three minutes passed by with Naruto indulging himself, and Jiraiya growing impatient to Tsunade's tardiness.

"Ugh, although Tsunade was never a morning person, for her to be this late is something else. Especially with Shizune rooming with her. Where is that no good, big-breasted, blond haired crappy gambler?" Jiraiya asked Naruto.

Naruto was confused. "How should I know?" He just finished his ramen and was in good spirits, only to have ero-sennin bring him down again.

Jiraiya sighed, and leaned back in his chair, deciding that there was nothing he could do but wait. He didn't have to wait ten seconds before a man walked over to them asking a question.

"Excuse me sir. Are you looking for two women; one of them a blond with long hair and the other a girl with short black hair?"

Both Jiraiya and Naruto turned to look at the source of the voice. The innkeeper had walked by them and overheard their conversation.

Jiraiya nodded, though something bothered him. They were _waiting_ for Tsunade and Shizune, not _looking_ for them. They were _looking_ for them a _week_ ago.

As it was, the innkeeper seemed to have some idea of where they were, if they went somewhere. And Jiraiya knew from years of experience to not fret about something that may or may not be a problem.

"Yes, we are. Do you know where they went?"

The innkeeper nodded. He wouldn't have remembered at all if what the blond said wasn't so odd.

"She said something about talking to a snake..."

Jiraiya paled.

* * *

Orochimaru could not contain his mirth and laughed merrily each time he cut into Tsunade's body.

"Ku ku ku, Tsunade-hime. It would seem age has begun to slow you down," he taunted as he slashed at her neck. Tsunade ducked to avoid the attack, but she ducked with too much power, and could not change her momentum quickly enough to jump out of the way as Orochimaru lazily swung his neck around and slashed her calf muscles.

Grimacing in pain, the slug princess quickly healed herself before jumping backwards into the air and performing hand signs for a katon jutsu. However, she was interrupted by Shizune's body, as Kabuto threw Shizune into her.

Both women fell into a heap on the ground. Tsunade recovered quickly and saw Orochimaru smiling down at her. She then looked at Shizune.

Tsunade couldn't keep the anger out of her face, delighting Orochimaru. Her student's face was cut in several places, and her clothing was cut up. Tsunade's eyes narrowed. The glasses freak was obviously toying with Shizune, as her right breast was exposed. The clothing that was over it was cut off in a perfect circle.

Tsunade next looked up at Kabuto. He had fallen in line behind Orochimaru with nary a scratch on him. Both snake sannin and his apprentice were slowly walking towards her, each one sporting a mocking smile.

For the first time in a long time, Tsunade felt fear. Not for herself, but for her student. Her student was tired, severely wounded, and had become a liability in the fighting. Not only that, her student was outclassed. Heavily. She was losing as it was to Orochimaru one on one. Now it was two on one, and she also had to make sure Shizune was alright. _What to do..._

* * *

"Naruto, how much farther do we need to go!" asked a desperate toad sennin.

"Not much farther now, ero-sennin. We just need to get out of this forest and we'll see them," replied an equally desperate blond brat. Both shinobi were terrified at the thought of the two women going up against Orochimaru. Jiraiya knew Orochimaru could handle Tsunade and Shizune easily on his own.

As it was, the time for laziness and jokes was gone. The innkeeper had said Tsunade and Shizune had gone to the fields to the east. Naruto said that the fields were where he trained last night, and that he knew how to get there. What bothered Jiraiya was that Naruto said it took him a little over an hour to get there, and if they got to the fields in an hour, Tsunade and Shizune were dead. Or worse.

Jiraiya heard branch snap behind him. He looked back to see Naruto falling back farther and farther. He smiled. He had set a brisk pace from the start, even for a ninja. Then about every minute or so, he increased his speed by a set amount. Naruto managed to keep up with him for the first four minutes, which put his maximum speed at mid to high chunin level, very impressive for a genin who hadn't even reached one year of service yet.

However, the upcoming battle was not going to be chunin level. It wasn't even jounin level. Normally Jiraiya would have kept anyone below jounin from coming with him to face Orochimaru, but Naruto was a wildcard with the Kyuubi inside of him, and he knew he would have accomplished more arguing with a tree than arguing with Naruto about staying behind.

Still, whatever Naruto might accomplish in the next hour would be greatly reduced if the brat was exhausted by the time they got there. And they needed to not be there soon, but be there _now_.

"Naruto!" Jiraiya exclaimed.

A panting Naruto managed a reply back, "What do you want....ero...sennnnnin." Jiraiya frowned. This would not do.

Jiraiya came to a stop on a particularly large branch. Naruto caught up about ten seconds after, and immediately after doing so, put both hands on his knees and bent down, struggling to catch his breath.

"Naruto," Jiraiya began. "Don't take this as an insult, but we're moving too slowly."

Naruto looked up incredulously. No way they were moving too slowly. He was going all out to get to baa-chan and Shizune-chan as fast as he could. Then, when what passed as deductive reasoning abilities began to start in Naruto's head, he realized the ero-sennin was right.

Ero-sennin wasn't tired at _all_. Here he was out of breath and bent over, while ero-sennin looked like he had just taken a light stroll around the park.

Naruto was willing to admit it to himself, but to admit it to ero-sennin was a very difficult pill to swallow. However, his desire to reach Shizune-chan beat down his pride.

"Okay ero-sennin, we're moving too slowly," Naruto said without panting, having caught his breath. "What can we do about it though? I can't move faster than that, and that tires me out too much. I'd be useless when we do get to Shizune-chan."

Jiraiya stared at Naruto. No way did the brat just acknowledge his own shortcomings and be reasonable. _Reasonable._ The thought was so absurd that Jiraiya shook his head and broke out into a big smile. He put a hand on Naruto's head and ruffled his hair affectionately. The little brat was growing up quickly, and what was this? For his _Shizune-chan_ no less. The kid was making far more progress into becoming a man than he would have even dreamed of when the two of them left Konoha over a month ago. _The kid's getting an extra big bowl of miso ramen tomorrow._

Jiraiya assumed the piggyback stance and told Naruto to hop on. Naruto looked blankly at the ero-sennin. Oh god no. This is too much.

Jiraiya however, was not thinking along the same lines. To restate, the time for laziness and jokes had passed.

"No time Naruto! Get on, or I'm leaving you behind. You have five seconds. Make your choice. _Now_."

Naruto stiffened. Ero-sennin had never taken that tone of voice with him. It was more menacing than Shukaku after Garaa fell asleep.

Hopping on to not upset ero-sennin any further, Naruto vaguely wondered how fast the ero-sennin could move.

He got his answer in the next following second.

Jiraiya _flew_. Even at fifty, he could outrun Anbu ninja thirty years his junior, and could cover more ground than a chunin using shunshin.

It took Naruto a minute to get used to the speed. The first twenty seconds were very touchy; he almost got motion sickness a couple times.

After steadying himself, Naruto began to enjoy the speed. It was exhilarating, to be moving this fast. The air rushing by you was cooling and refreshing, and you just felt so light, as if you were the wind itself.

Naruto had to give the old man some props. He could _move_.

In a burst of curiosity, Naruto checked to see if ero-sennin was short of breath. As it was, ero-sennin was still breathing normally.

_Show off_, Naruto mused.

Feeling the need to make up for his embarrassment, Naruto began telling ero-sennin about his breakthrough on the rasengan.

"So ero-sennin," Naruto began.

"Hmm, what brat. Don't make me talk." Jiraiya curtly replied.

Naruto snorted. What the heck is this? _Well, whatever._

"Fine, then just listen." Naruto didn't wait for a reply. "Yesterday, during my rasengan training, you know Shizune-chan helped me right? Well, I tried really hard and practiced a lot, but I couldn't make that same small rasengan that you can make," Naruto told Jiraiya.

Jiraiya mentally snorted. _Well duh. Tsunade may have been harsh on you, but she was more or less __right._

But something was off. _That __**same small**__ rasengan?_

"I couldn't make the rasengan at all, so Shizune-chan told me to make a small one and work my way up. That didn't work out so well, the small ones are even harder to make, actually."

Jiraiya mentally sighed. Shizune should know the aspects of the rasengan. It's exponentially harder to make smaller ones than larger ones control-wise. Larger ones are easier to make, but they require too much chakra.

Jiraiya's eyes widened. If what he was thinking was right, Shizune had found a vein of gold. All of a sudden, what Naruto had to say greatly interested him.

Jiraiya was allowed the time to think because Naruto was busy wiping his face off. Some stupid bugs were hitting his face. _Stupid ero-sennin, I bet he's doing it on purpose._

Getting the last of it, Naruto started again. "So yeah, I couldn't make the small ones. I told her how it was even harder to make a small one, so she told me to make a larger one. That one was easier for me, and by the end of the day, I could make rasengans that are the size of..." Naruto looked around. "...Your head!" Naruto finished triumphantly.

Jiraiya mentally started dancing around like a little girl in a field of flowers. Shizune came through _big time._ He'd have to test it, but Naruto sounded like he could make a rasengan that was battle-ready.

Jiraiya did not forget the jab Naruto threw in. That would not do.

"Are you implying that I have a big head, you little brat?" Jiraiya asked, his voice dripping with mock venom.

Naruto laughed. "Implaying? I'm not implaying. I know!"

Jiraiya shook his head and kept silent. No comeback would have been sufficient for that one.

The two continued on for another minute before the silence got to Naruto.

"Ero-sennin. Actually, when I was working on making the rasengan smaller, I forgot to take out some chakra, and the thing sort of blew up on me. It was cool!"

Jiraiya knew what Naruto was talking about. The third step of the rasengan (applying a thin layer of chakra over the swirling chakra) could only contain so much chakra. If you threw in too much chakra, it didn't matter how much control you had; the intensity of the swirling chakra would erode the third step and create an "explosion." Jiraiya had it happen to him many times when he was learning it from Minato. The rasengan quickly dispersed itself outwards. However, for him, the "explosion" just threw his arm off to a side; it wasn't even strong enough to break a bone or tear muscle. But for Naruto...

"Naruto," Jiraiya asked. "How big was the explosion?"

Naruto grinned. "It made a crater so big you could have fit the hokage tower in it!"

Jiraiya was shocked. The difference in explosive power was that large? Then again, the volume of chakra required goes up by a power of three, so it wasn't totally impossible. But to fit the Hokage tower?

Jiraiya mentally did the math, and found that a rasengan the size of his head would not be anywhere near big enough to make a crater that wide. Surely Naruto was exaggerating. He only had to check one more thing to be absolutely sure.

"Naruto, how big was that first rasengan that you could control when you tried to downsize it?"

Naruto made a 'hmm' sound, and began to think. He came up with a truthful, yet (in his opinion) hilarious answer. After hearing it, Jiraiya couldn't see the humor in it at all. That was _impossible_. Yet, if it were, the math fit. He didn't have to do the calculations; he knew it was big enough. Jiraiya began salivating at the things the brat could do with that...thing. _Oh the possibilities..._

"It was as big as the Shodaime Hokage's nose on the Hokage Monument!"

* * *

Tsunade was desperate. Orochimaru would get to her in less than a minute. Her chakra was down to about half, and to heal Shizune would require a good chunk of that, along with more time than what she had.

So she did the only thing she could do. She tried to stall for time.

"Orochimaru," Tsunade began. Orochimaru stopped, as did Kabuto. _Good, at least that got him to stop_, Tsunade thought. _Now to keep him there for as long as I can_.

"At least let Shizune go. Wh--" she began as Orochimaru interrupted her, a smile forming at his lips.

"I know what you're doing Tsunade-hime. You are stalling for time. As amusing as it would be to let you do it and see what you come up with, I have other pressing engagements that require my presence. I cannot..._dillydally_ here any longer than I need to."

With that, he began walking over to her even faster than he had before. Kabuto matched his masters pace, then looked at the pained face of, what did she say her name was? Ah. _Shizune._ Such a beautiful, feminine name, and her body certainly lives up to it. Her breast was so...perfect. Her nipples a delicious shade of pink, a delightful contrast to that pale skin. Kabuto felt the kind of lust that he hadn't felt in a long time; the desire to overwhelm, dominate, and violate a woman.

It had happened twice before in his life. Both times he had satiated his lust. Both times the women were found dead, violated beyond measure.

So here was Kabuto, following his master, towards the two kunoichi, one an old woman hiding behind an illusion to protect her vanity. The other, a young woman fighting for her life after suffering multiple injuries. Even from where he was, he could see that she was fighting to stay conscious, her breathing was labored, and her face a grimace of pain. She was tired, she was hurt, and she was so..._ready_ for him. Kabuto licked his lips in anticipation. He was going to have some fun tonight.

Tsunade, out of options, decided to heal Shizune and have her get out of here. She had seen the lust in the glasses freak's eyes, and knew it wasn't aimed at her. To heal Shizune would put herself at Orochimaru's mercy, but to not do so would put them _both_ at his mercy. Her choice was an easy one to make.

Orochimaru was not ten feet from her when he stopped. Tsunade noticed this and looked up. She tried to appeal to what humanity he had and looked pleadingly at him.

Orochimaru gave no indication of receiving any kind of plea. Apparently her cry fell on deaf ears.

Or in this case, blind eyes would be more appropriate.

"Tsunade-hime. I can kill you now where you sit. And there isn't a thing you can do about it." Orochimaru began. She knew he was more or less right. She _could_ punch the ground and create a barrier from the earth, but that would kill Shizune. And kill Shizune she would not.

Orochimaru continued. "But that would accomplish nothing, and in fact would make this entire altercation a waste of my time. So here is what I am going to do. I am going to modify the deal on the table. Heal my arms Tsunade-hime, or--" Orochimaru drew Kusanagi. "--your apprentice dies."

Kabuto flinched, but recovered quickly. No way the slug sannin lets her apprentice die, especially with the history that they have. _Now heal Orochimaru-sama's arms, die by his hand, and leave me some __personal time with my Shizune._

This was it. Nothing to be done now. Defeated and out of options, Tsunade broke out in tears before looking up at Orochimaru.

"Okay," she began, the defeat clear in her voice. "I--"

"NOW BRAT!" yelled Jiraiya.

Tsunade and Orochimaru turned to look at Jiraiya emerging from the forest with Naruto on his back. For Tsunade, this was the equivalent of Kami-sama sending his angels to do his work. For Orochimaru, this was the equivalent of Kami-sama sending his angels to get in his way. Kabuto was lost in his thoughts planning his night with Shizune and consequently did not notice.

Hoping to salvage the situation, Orochimaru readied Kusanagi and was about to end Shizune's life when he felt a monstrous level of chakra output. It was such that it froze him and compelled him to look at what it was.

Naruto on Jiraiya's back held both arms up and put his hands together, forming a rasengan the size of, as he put it, the Shodaime Hokage's nose. Orochimaru could see it all, the swirling chakra, the chakra density, and most of all, the sheer amount of chakra the technique was holding in.

Jiraiya jumped high in the air as Naruto jumped off his back and threw the giant rasengan at Orochimaru, yelling the name of the technique he and ero-sennin came up with in the past three minutes.

**Naruton: Oodama Rasengan**!

The last thought that raced through Orochimaru's brain before the enormous rasengan touched the ground was perhaps the most proper.

_A technique truly worthy of the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki._

Now Orochimaru knew how the rasengan worked. It grinds into the opponent. Orochimaru had prepared a defense expecting the same thing, just on a larger scale.

Oh how wrong he was.

As soon as the Oodama Rasengan touched the ground, that was it. The third step wore off and created an explosion that scared off all the birds in a two-mile radius.

The explosion was enormous, requiring Orochimaru a substantial amount of chakra to even stay on the ground and protect himself. The damage he sustained was negligible, but the worst was yet to come. The explosion had kicked up a cloud of dust and dirt several times the size of the technique itself.

"What the--(cough, cough)," Orochimaru began as the dust overwhelmed his respiratory system.

Kabuto had been thrown back from the explosion, but the injuries he sustained were minor, and he quickly healed. The more imminent problem was this giant haze of dust that the explosion kicked up. Orochimaru was in there, and he could hear his master coughing. As it was, Orochimaru was nearing three years with the particular body that he was in, and it had already begun to deteriorate. Lung damage for Orochimaru's body at this stage was a potentially huge problem. He needed to clear this up fast.

Kabuto quickly formed the seal combination to use the one fuuton jutsu Orochimaru teaches all of his subordinates. It was a brilliant idea after all, to know at least one jutsu of each elemental type. So simple, so obvious, and yet, no one else does it. That is what defines a true genius: to see what no one else sees, especially if it is the obvious. A true genius, Orochimaru was.

**Fuuton: Daitoppa!** Yelled Kabuto as the air exploded from where he stood.

The following streams of wind quickly dissipated the dust cloud, alleviating his master's coughing problems and allowing them to see their surroundings. Kabuto hurried over to Orochimaru, who had the definition of anger plastered on his face.

Looking at where Orochimaru was looking at, Kabuto noticed not two, but four people. Tsunade was in a sitting position healing her worthless apprentice, who looked to be in bad condition. Not a foot behind them stood the legendary toad sennin, Jiraiya. Kabuto sighed. This battle just got exponentially more difficult.

The final person stood to Jiraiya's right. Kabuto look at him. This person was short, with spiky hair. His hair was blond, his eyes were blue, and he had six whiskers on his face. Kabuto's eyes lit up. This person he had met before. This person was memorable. This person was potential defined.

This person was the first to speak.

Walking out of Jiraiya's shadow, Naruto looked at Orochimaru. So there stood the man who had killed his jii-chan, his hokage. He was going to pay. Then he looked at the person next to him. Glasses, gray hair, ponytail, complete with a...standard Konoha genin wardrobe?

"Kabuto?" Naruto asked.

Stepping forward and smiling widely, Kabuto fixed his glasses and answered back.

"Hello Naruto-kun."

* * *

**AN**: Naruto uses the Oodama Rasengan in this FF in a manner similar to Wargreymon's "terra destroyer" from digimon. Imagine that huge ball of swirling chakra blowing up. Heh...

I know it's improper Japanese, but I meant **Naruton: Oodama Rasengan** to mean: "Naruto style, Really Big Swirling Sphere." It sounded like something he and Jiraiya would come up with.

Apologizes for grammar/punctuation/spelling errors, though I don't think there are too many. There may be plot holes, all of which I will fix later.

Reviews welcome. Thanks for reading.


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